Cancel Vision School for Subang Jaya


Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang
 

(Petaling Jaya, Thursday): MCA Deputy Education Minister, Datuk Hon Choon Kim said yesterday that the Cabinet yesterday has agreed that a Chinese new primary school would be built in Johore Jaya in substitution of the original  Vision School.

This should be  good news except for the following five  considerations:

Firstly, can Hon  be trusted or could yesterday’s Cabinet decision be overturned like the Cabinet decision of February 21, 2001 that new  Chinese primary schools would be built according to “need” under the Eighth Malaysia Plan which led the  former MCA  Minister and  now  MCA Secretary-General and Central Education Bureau chief, Datuk Dr. Ting Chew Peh  to publicly  hail it as a "historic breakthrough for the future of Chinese education" in Malaysia! Hon should clarify as to when and why the Cabinet revoked the February 21 decision to build new Chinese primary schools according to need under the Eighth Malaysia Plan - and why there were no  objections from MCA Ministers.

Secondly, did the MCA Ministers raise in Cabinet yesterday the proposal to delete the  reference to  Vision School Concept in the Eighth Malaysia Plan (Para 4.102 - page 122)  until  there is full consultation and agreement of all  communities by way of a formal amendment of the document in Parliament?

Thirdly,  did the MCA Ministers secure Cabinet agreement that out of the 200 single-session new schools to be built under the RM3 billion economic stimulus package announced by the Prime Minister on March 27, at least ten per cent or 20 of them will be new Chinese primary schools?

Fourthly, did the MCA Ministers raise in  Cabinet the New Deal for Mother-Tongue Education under the Eighth Malaysia Plan with  the target to build 250 new Chinese primary schools for the next five years to meet increasing demand for Chinese primary school places by all Malaysians regardless of race - as there are now 70,000 non-Chinese pupils studying in Chinese primary schools in the country.

Fifthly, will MCA Ministers ask the Cabinet next week to cancel the Vision School concept for Subang Jaya and build instead a new Chinese primary school in Subang Jaya?
 
(26/4/2001)


*Lim Kit Siang - DAP National Chairman