20 January 2018

Press statement by MCA Youth Education Bureau Chairman Lim Ching Hao

Stop politicising Yong Peng High School, Guan Eng should talk less & give more allocations

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng should not politicise education. Speak less and allocate more funds to avoid unnecessary wars!

It is regrettable that Guan Eng recently used ambiguous remarks against MCA Yong Peng MP Datuk Seri Dr Ir Wee Ka Siong regarding his allocations for Yong Peng High School.

Firstly, as Guan Eng has pointed out - every year, he allocates RM10 million but Ka Siong did not give enough allocations to Chinese schools. This is a misleading remark. In fact, the Minister receives only RM 1 million allocation per year to serve as funding for various causes.

Secondly, Guan Eng was referring to the RM5millon allocation for constituencies which were allocated for Members of Parliament, and that only RM75,000 was contributed to Yong Peng High School. This is where Guan Eng deliberately confuses the public perception because the constituency allocation is not a grant solely for education, but also includes infrastructure development for large and small constituencies.

Guan Eng as the Chief Minister has allocated RM500,000 to all Chinese Independent schools in Penang and not just as a constituent’s MP. However, the Bagan MP deliberately insinuated that Ka Siong contributed only RM75,000 to his Ayer Hitam constituency for Yong Peng High School. In fact, this is where the difference lays in allocations ie decision by the Chief Minister from a state government vs allocations for constituencies. Such a difference in source and purpose of allocation cannot be used as comparison. This is unfair to the MCA Deputy President.

It should be emphasised that Ka Siong has does his best to allocate funding for his constituency and has made every effort to allocate funds to schools of all streams and has obtained the understanding of all the schools. It is an indisputable fact that Yong Peng High School is indeed the school with the largest allocation among the 50 schools in Ka Siong’s constituency.

As Ka Siong mentioned a few days ago, Guan Eng attacked him with the aim of stirring the Chinese community into assuming that he allocated insufficient funds for Chinese schools. However, Ka Siong has responded that he has assisted Yong Peng High School to the maximum. To the Malay community, Guan Eng would say that Ka Siong aided Chinese schools tremendously and did not take into account the welfare of the Malay community. This is a mean political tactic.

In any case, I urge Guan Eng not to cease donating to Yong Peng High School and respect the statement issued by the Board of Yong Peng High School. Do not speculate on this issue, but do more good, regardless of how much the funding amount is in order to continue to help the development and construction of Chinese schools.

In fact, irrespective if the donation is RM1,000 or RM10,000, MCA welcomes Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng to continue to contribute more, and continue to allocate funds for Chinese school irrespective of which coalition is ruling either the federal or state schools, ultimately, all donations will benefit more schools.

Lim Ching Hao

MCA Youth Education Bureau Chairman

-MCA Online-