13 November 2018

Press statement by MCA Vice President Datuk Tan Teik Cheng

DAP & the politicisation of education

Since acquiring federal power, DAP has become a party most undeserving of trust from the Chinese community. Some of its leaders, via their supporters and Facebook fan page as proxies, utilise malicious maneuvres in an attempt to further slander and disrepute MCA. They have sunk right down to a level where to attack MCA politically, they spare not the image of Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TAR UC) that was founded to aid the less privileged.

The Teluk Intan MP and Deputy Dewan Rakyat Speaker Nga Kor Ming’s fan page, named overbearingly as the “Nga Kor Ming Super Fans Page” posted an infographic that reeks with barefaced falsehoods on MCA and TAR UC.

The image completely misreported the total annual expenditure of TAR UC to fling MCA, accusing that we had lied all these years to the people and the Chinese community to profit off TAR UC. Such dirty tricks are a disgrace; a classic DAP move to “politicise education”.

DAP is a party that is simply incapable of differentiating politics and governance, constantly meddling in education affairs for political purposes. They hesitated not one bit to reduce an education institution that has done so much good into a political pawn. 

No one can deny that TAR UC and UTAR was indeed founded by MCA to make tertiary education affordable to the less privileged. Yet, Pakatan Harapan had only allocated RM5.5 million to TAR UC, an institute that needs at least RM20 million a year to operate. The measly allocation does little to help, and pressures an inflated rise in tuition fees.

On this issue, DAP has acted one hundred per cent in a two-faced, double-dealing manner.

Before the election, Lim Guan Eng in 2017 had promised if DAP managed to wrestle the federal power, Pakatan Harapan will not nitpick over an educational establishment’s background, and treat all students fairly.

Also before GE14, DAP politician and TAR UC alumnus Teo Kok Seong had also called for a press conference at the Parliament to blast BN for not mentioning TAR UC in Budget 2018, and mocked MCA as powerless in the Cabinet.

The Education Ministry then had promptly responded that TAR UC had, in fact, been allocated RM30 million. The allocation was simply no longer included under the Ministry’s operational expenditure budget, but under the Ministry’s management sector. The most recent federal budget will however see the funding sheared to a mere RM5.5 million. Lim Guan Eng’s mean-spirited nature, Teo Kok Seong’s disinterest and the overwhelming silence from DAP leadership speak volumes.

There are no other ways to describe DAP except it is a faithless political party that had betrayed the Chinese community; that it is a party inept in every conceivable way unless it is something about dishing out political attacks.

Datuk Tan Teik Cheng

MCA Vice President

-MCA online-