DAP endorses the Dong Jiao Zong 1999 Declaration on Mother Tongue Education and would propose that it be incorporated in the Opposition’s Alternative Manifesto for the coming election

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Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang  

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The Six Affirmations and Twelve Demands of the Dong Jiao Zong 1999 Declaration on Mother Tongue Education is in keeping with the mother-tongue education policy of the DAP.

DAP MPs had opposed the 1996 Education Act in Parliament because the new education law had failed to allay or satisfy the legitimate reservations, fears and aspirations pertaining to mother-tongue education in Malaysia.

During the debate on the Bill in the Dewan Rakyat on December 18, 1995, I had summarised these "legitimate reservations, fears and aspirations" into four main categories as follows:
 

1. Although Section 21(2) and Section 26(A) of the 1961 Education Act have been repealed, the "ultimate objective" of  the National Education Policy remains the guiding philosophy of the new Education Bill.
 
For this reason, it is imperative that the Preamble of the new Education Bill 1995 should reiterate the spirit of the constitutional guarantee in Article 152 on the free learning and teaching of other Malaysian languages, and in particular  Section 3 of the Education Ordinance 1957, which reads:
 
"The educational policy of the Federation is to establish a national system of education acceptable to the people as a whole which will satisfy their needs and promote their cultural, social, economic and political development as a nation, with the intention of making the Malay language the national language of the country while preserving and sustaining the growth of the language and culture of the peoples other than Malays living in the country";
 
2. Full recognition and acceptance of the role of mother-tongue primary schools in nation- building, by treating all equally as national primary schools, including full government financial and capital support, and ending the division of primary  schools into national and national-type primary schools;
 
3. Recognition of the positive role and contribution of Chinese Independent Secondary Schools to national development  and training of human resources in Malaysia in the past four decades, by committing government financial support and  giving them more space for development and expansion instead of placing them under greater restrictions in the new  Education Bill as compared to the 1961 Education Act, whether in terms of Unified Examination, planning twinning programmes, school management or fund-raising.
 
4. Clear provision to allow the operation of private post-secondary and higher educational institutions without excessive and unreasonable Ministerial control and regulation.

(3/8/99)