Lets have a honest debate about the future of Malaysia and DAP and not use lies, falsehoods and distorted sayings

Yesterday I said that there is a movement calling for “Chinese Unite” to respond to “Malays Unite” movement, urging the Chinese voters to vote for “good Chinese” regardless of political party in the 15th General Election.

I said: “The inspiration of this surreptitious movement is from the MCA and Gerakan, which hopes to join forces with DAP members who agree with this approach.”

This has been distorted into my saying that there are DAP elements who are working with MCA and Gerakan to secretly launch a “Chinese Unity” movement to ask the voters to vote for “good Chinese” in the 15th General Election regardless of party.

This is exactly the type of falsehood and distortions that accused me of saying that one must learn Jawi to be a Malaysian or that the DAP Seccretary-General Lim Guan Eng had declared that he was not a Chinese when he was appointed Finance Minister when we have never said these things.

Did I ever say that one must learn Jawi to be a Malaysian?

This is what I say in Salem in August 2019 when the Jawi controversy in Chinese and Tamil primary schools exploded:

“When I was first detained under the Internal Security Act in 1969, I taught myself Jawi in detention. It did not make me any less of a Chinese, and may have helped in making me more of a Malaysian.”

Only the most illiterate or the most morally bankrupt would interpret the above as saying that one must learn Jawi to be a Malaysian.

I was accused of abandoning my stand on Jawi in 1984, which I stated in a speech to the Selangor State DAP Committee on 1st June 1984. This is what I said then (speech available on the website):

“The DAP is opposed to the introduction of Jawi as a compulsory subject for the primary schools, for it is clearly against the Constitutional provision in Article 152 which provided for the national language to be Rumi script of Bahasa Malaysia. The Jawi script therefore is not part of the national language or official language.”

The DAP stand on Jawi, whether in 1984, 2019 or 2021 remains unchanged.

These were the three points which I made in Salem in August 2019:

• Jawi is not compulsory but optional for students in Chinese and Tamil primary schools, and that there will be no compulsion, learning or examination of Jawi.
• Plans to revise the curriculum to include Jawi in Std. 4 Bahasa Malaysia textbook in 2020 was decided by the Barisan Nasional government in 2014-2016.
• The statement from the Education Ministry that “Although the plan to introduce khat in schools will proceed, the ministry will still accept the views of various parties to ensure that there is fair consideration” indicates that the Education Ministry is still open to views and consultation from all groups and parties concerned.

How was my stand on Jawi in 2019 contrary to my stand on Jawi in 1984?

It is also pertinent to note that the backdoor, undemocratic and illegitimate Perikatan Nasional (PN) has been in office for over a year, where both the MCA and Gerakan are represented. Why are these critics not being consistent, as they had never asked the three-page Jawi be completely removed from the Chinese and Tamil primary school curriculum?

The same dishonesty and distortion apply to the accusation that Guan Eng had declared that he was not a Chinese when he was appointed Finance Minister, when all he wanted to stress was that he would a Finance Minister to all Malaysians.

Again, only the most illiterate or the most morally bankrupt would resort to such despicable tactics.

This is also why when I tried to explain the true picture as to why the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) was not accorded recognition in the 22-month Pakatan Harapan Government before it was toppled by the Sheraton Move conspiracy, there was panic and a very strong reaction which led to organised cybertrooper responses saying that they do not want to listen to any explanation about the UEC.

Why is this so? Why so afraid of the truth?

If what I said contained mistakes or fallacies, expose them. Closing one’s yes and shutting’s one ears is not the action of a rational human being.

I had quoted what Pakatan Harapan promised on the UEC in the 14th General Election in Buku Harapan, which said:

“Pakatan Harapan will undertake to recognise UEC certificates to enter public institutions of higher learning (IPTA) provided that applicants have a credit in Bahasa Melayu at the SPM level. For this purpose, the UEC certificate will be assessed to be equivalent to the existing general qualification for entry into IPTA.”

I also pointed out that at the DAP Retreat in 2019, the then Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad said the Pakatan Harapan government was committed to the pledge to recognise the UEC certificate to enter public institutions of learning, after an assessment. Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim also made a similar commitment.

But the toppling of the Pakatan Harapan government after 22 months by the Sheraton Move conspiracy made it impossible to fulfil the election manifesto which was to be fulfilled in five years.

Why are these critics not asking the PN government, which included MCA and Gerakan, to accord recognition to UEC?

I admitted that the high hopes and expectations of the 14th General Election to restore Malaysia as a world-class great nation – in the words of Bapa Malaysia Tunku Abdul Rahman to be “a beacon of light in a difficult and distracted world” – had not been fulfilled.

Lets have a honest debate about the future of Malaysia and DAP and not use lies, falsehoods and distorted sayings.

But we must not give up our Malaysian Dream for Malaysia to be a world-class great nation.

Let us return to basics and refocus on our real challenge – how we can rekindle, re-inspire, re-energize and re-motivate among Malaysians, both at home and in the Malaysian Diaspora worldwide, hope and inspiration in the Malaysian Dream for the country to be a world-class great nation by ensuring that the 15th General Election can fulfil the high but dashed hopes of the 14th General Election for reform and salvation!

We rejected kleptocracy in the 14th General Election.

Let Malaysians reject kakistocracy in the 15th General Election.