Prime Minister relinquishing Education portfolio welcomed; MCA to continue monitoring Pakatan’s administration

MCA welcomes the latest Cabinet list as forwarded by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad whereby he has announced  that he would not serve as Minister of Education. This is an important decision and the Prime Minister has demonstrated to the rakyat that the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government can honor its promises.   

Just days ago, the premier announcement that he would simultaneously serve as the Minister of Education showed that PH had violated its Promises in the Buku Harapan or its Manifesto. Promise 12 of the declares that the Prime Minister will not hold another Ministerial position simultaneously, especially the post of Minister of Finance. The concurrent appointment of being both Prime Minister and Education Minister clearly violated this pledge.

As a result, MCA issued several reminders to the Prime Minister and the PH government on this matter emphasising that the PH Manifesto had been breached just within one week of Tun Mahathir being sworn in, thereby undermining PH’s own integrity. Now that the premier has decided to relinquish his own appointment as Education Minister, this indicates that PH is responsible for its announcement.

It should be pointed out that after Tun Mahathir initially announced the Cabinet positions, certain PH leaders including Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Lim Kit Siang quickly rushed to his defence, and even claimed that the announcement did not breach the PH Manifesto. However, now that Tun M has given up the Education portfolio, Anwar’s and Kit Siang’s earlier defence points that they were not speaking the truth.

MCA will continue to actively play the role of a constructive opposition party to ensure that PH honours its pledges and implements fair and people-friendly good governance.

Senator Dato’ Chai Kim Sen
MCA Publicity Bureau Chairman
MCA Deputy National Organising Secretary

-MCA online-