Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang - Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjong
in Petaling Jaya
on Saturday, 25 January 1997

Education Ministry should launch a Schools Electrification Programme 2000 to provide steady power supply to all the 1,273 schools currently without electricity

I have received a state-by-state breakdown of the 1,273 schools in the country without electricity from the Deputy Minister for Education, Datuk Haji Khalid Yunus - as he had promised during the parliamentary debate on the Education Ministry last month on the subject of introducing Information Technology to the schools.

The information provided by Khalid is as follows:

In his letter, Khalid made a special point that “kebanyakan sekolah-sekolah terlibat ialah di kawasan-kawasan pendalaman Sabah dan Sarawak. Di Semenanjung cuma terdapat 146 buah sekolah sahaja. Dari bilangan tersebut 94 buah menerima bekalan terhad”.

Nevertheless, the country must regard it as a national scandal that three years before the new millennium and at a time when Malaysia is promoting the Multimedia Super Corridor in the world arena to attract companies with cutting-edge technologies to come to Malaysia, there are 883 schools totally without power supply and 440 schools with limited power supply.

The Education Ministry should launch a Schools Electrification Programme 2000 to provide steady power supply to all the 1,273 schools currently without electricity or with only limited power supply.

For the next three years, DAP Members of Parliament will monitor this issue of providing power supply to all schools in every meeting of Parliament, asking for progress reports as to the number of schools without power supply which had been provided with electricity and the number of schools with limited power which had been given steady and continuous electricity.

Let Malaysia be able to stand tall in the world by the year 2,000 and announce that all schools in Malaysia have power supply - to give credence to Malaysia’s intention to be at the forefront of information technology revolution.

(25/1/97)