Remarks by

MCA Secretary General Dato’ Seri Ong Ka Chuan

To Commemorate MCA’s 68^th Party Anniversary

5 March 2017

This year, our party Central Committee has decided on the theme of “STRONGER TOGETHER” for the party anniversary. We hope that all party members will be united in placing party interest above self, in order to face the coming 14^th General Elections. The working committee for the party anniversary has also decided to compile a video clip to commemorate the contributions our party has made towards education throughout these 68 years. This will allow better public understanding of MCA’s contributions.

Looking back at history, our party has constantly suffered at the hands society’s confusion between sentiment, rationality and the rule of law. In terms of sentiments, Malayan Chinese were still deliberating between the dilemma of returning home to China, or settling down in Malaya during the turbulent years between 1945 (after WWII) and 1949 (when the People’s Republic of China was formed). Faced with emotional ties towards the motherland, the Chinese community in Malaya could only see the superficial rational of the matter, and not the process and difficulty in legitimising their aspiration. While China closed its doors in 1949, Deng Xiao Ping led the reform team to reopen them later in 1989. On 2 December 1989, Chin Peng led the Malayan Communist Party to sign a peace accord with the Malaysian government, and finally ended the nightmares of the Chinese community after 40 years of suffering.

One of MCA’s greatest burden throughout its history is that the Chinese community blames MCA for not facilitating the legitimisation of Mandarin as the country’s official language, resulting in the many problems faced by Malaysian Chinese education today. This is due to the strong sentiment the Chinese community holds towards their mother tongue. As such, MCA has constantly become a target of blame. Unfortunately, they failed to see that in the confrontation between communist socialism and democratic capitalism during the Cold War period, Chinese education was also dragged into the whirlpool of the Cold War. (There were even disputes about the Mandarin font style and phonetic system!)

On 1 October 1949, when the Communist Party of China officially formed the People’s Republic of China, Chinese education became an increasingly sensitive subject. Countries of the Western bloc which opposed communism believed that Mandarin was one of the languages used to propagate communism and its ideology. Therefore, supressing the growth of Chinese education was one of the important strategies in combating the spreading of communism.

One of our MCA’s veteran leaders, the first Deputy Minister of Education, the late Mr. Too Joon Hing once said: “It is the wish of every Chinese person to have Mandarin as the national language. However, the reality of the current political environment does not favour this cause. In the process of Malaysia’s nation building, there are countless issues of varying priorities; the most important and urgent issue concerning our people to be solved immediately, is to attain citizenship for the Chinese community. At the end of the day, people should not misconstrue MCA’s actions as an abandonment towards the development of Chinese education.”

On 19 August 1959, our nation held its first nationwide general election after gaining independence. MCA had contested for 31 seats. However, due to the dilemma of Chinese education and the issue of the Chinese community’s dignity, MCA lost 12 of its parliamentary seats. This loss can be mainly attributed to external challenges and serious internal strife within the party. UMNO was also hit by heavy losses. The Pan-Malayan Islamic Party (later to be known as PAS), won the majority of state seats in Terengganu and Kelantan, thereby gaining control of the two state governments. At the parliamentary level, UMNO lost 18 of its 70 contested seats. On one hand, a major reason for the victories of the Pan-Malayan Islamic Party and its allies were accusations that UMNO, led by Tunku Abdul Rahman, had been influenced by MCA to compromise the interests of Muslims. These accusations included the government’s refusal to use Islamic law as the basis for the Federal Constitution, as well as allowing too many exceptions regarding Chinese education. On the other hand, yet another reason for MCA’s loss was due to our party being condemned as traitors by the Chinese community for “selling out” Chinese education. Therein lie the difficulties in building our multiracial nation.

The results of the 1959 general elections also saw the rise of the more conservative and aggressive leaders in UMNO, leading to the UMNO leadership taking a tougher stance on Chinese education. Unfortunately, with the untimely passing of Tun Tan Cheng Lock on 13 December 1960, the relationship between the government, MCA and Dong Jiao Zong grew distant without Tun Tan’s leadership. This led to the disintegration of the Chinese Education Central Committee comprising of MCA and Dong Jiao Zong. The rift between MCA and Dong Jiao Zong was further exacerbated after the release of the Rahman Talib Report in August 1961. It took 35 years and a new generation of MCA leaders to rectify the damages caused by Article 21(2) of the Education Act.

In Southeast Asia, the anti-communist political climate culminated with the government of Singapore adopting the policy of rejecting Chinese education, believing that Mandarin was an instrument of the Communists. In 1959, the Singapore government announced that all academic qualifications obtained from Nanyang University, a university with Mandarin as its dominant teaching language which opened on June 1955, would not be recognised by the government.

On 21 September 1962, the People’s Action Party (PAP) led by Lee Kuan Yew won the general election. On the night of 22 September, the new government which had yet to set up its Cabinet, declared that Tan Lark Sye, the founder and Chairman of Nanyang University's Executive Committee, would be stripped off his citizenship.

In the 1970s, the Singaporean government began to implement English as its national language (medium of instruction), leading to the decline of Chinese education in Singapore. The Singapore Ministry of Education also carried out an extensive restructuring of Nanyang University, resulting with the use of English as the medium of instruction for all faculties, except for Chinese Language and Literature. On 16 August 1980, Nanyang University held its 21^st Convocation Ceremony, signifying its eventual development into the present Nanyang Technological University. Many scholars believed that it was the Singapore government’s disproportionate treatment of English and Mandarin that led to the uprooting of Chinese education in Singapore.

The incident with Singapore’s Nanyang University led to the beginnings of a desire among Malaysia’s Chinese community to establish a Chinese university in Malaysia (Merdeka University). Unfortunately, this issue sparked serious strife between MCA and the Chinese community. One of the reasons for this was due to MCA’s plan of setting up TAR College in 1968.

On 16 April 1969, Sin Chew Daily quoted Tun Tan Siew Sin, the then party President, as saying “It is easier for hell to freeze than the Merdeka University to be established in this country.” This statement caused great damage to the party. In truth, Tun Tan understood the restrictions presented by realities of the environment; even Nanyang University was not able to change its fate. Hence, Tun Tan’s opinion regarding the establishment of Merdeka University, while honest, unfortunately did cost the party greatly.

Against the backdrop of Universiti Merdeka’s twists and turns, the MCA leadership mediated and petitioned the government. Eventually on 28 May 1997, the then Deputy Minister of Education Tan Sri Fong Chan Onn, representing MCA, personally handed over a letter of approval to construct the New Era College to Mr. Quek Suan Hiang, the then Dong Zong Chairman. Again, on 5 April 2013, MCA’s Deputy Higher Education Minister Dato’ Hou Kok Chung personally delivered his Ministry’s letter of approval allowing New Era College to be upgraded to be a University College, to the then Dong Zong Chairman Yap Sin Tian.

However, it is erroneous to say that Tun Tan did not contribute to this matter. Under his leadership, on 14 July 1968, the then Minister of Education Tan Sri Mohammad Khir Johari announced that the government had agreed to the establishment of TAR College. Today, TAR University College has cultivated more than 180,000 professionals in all fields. Currently, there are 27,000 students enrolled. Through MCA leaders’ tireless efforts, the government approved that TAR College be upgraded to university status on 5 December 2012.

I would also like to reveal a fact here: Article 21(2) of the Education Act has been removed; Southern College, New Era College and TAR College have all been elevated to university college status. All these were made possible by the present Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak. These achievements show that Dato’ Sri Najib is an enlightened and visionary leader. I would also like to pay special tribute to Dato’ Dr Hou Kok Chung, who was the then MCA Vice President wielding the position of Deputy Minister of Higher Education from 2008 to 2013. To his credit, he contributed greatly towards the upgrading of these colleges to university college status.

Throughout these 68 years, MCA has always fought to preserve the legitimacy of Chinese education, but has instead been denounced as a traitor to the Chinese, which is very unfair to MCA. In reality, many of those who condemn MCA have failed to make any contribution whatsoever to Chinese education.

I have especially contacted veteran party members who have previously represented our party in holding the office of Deputy Minister of Education, to speak about the contributions they made while in office. As the Chinese saying goes “It is not necessarily easy to do as you say, but it is much easier to make empty promises; it is much easier to comment on issues than it is to fix them.” After listening to the heartfelt thoughts of our previous Deputy Ministers of Education, everyone will be able to truly understand that regardless of the difficult circumstances, MCA has contributed towards Chinese education and preserved the development of Chinese education till today.

In 1987, when Anwar Ibrahim was the Minister of Education, the Ministry of Education appointed a group of teachers without proper Chinese education qualifications to hold high administrative positions in Chinese primary schools, sparking a wave of intense protests. On 8 October of the same year, Dong Jiao Zong, in unity with the Chinese guilds, associations, and all Chinese-based political parties, held a large scale protest in Kuala Lumpur. On 27 October 1987, the government launched “Operation Lalang”, which used the Internal Security Act (ISA) to arrest hundreds of people, including many cultural and educational leaders. In the end, the person representing the party within the Ministry of Education to solve this dire matter, was the then-Deputy Minister of Education, Mr Woon See Chin.

While in office, party member Mr Woon See Chin personally handed over a letter from the Ministry of Education to the then Chairman of Johor Bahru Tiong Hua Association, Tan Sri Low Lam Hui. The letter contained the approval of the establishment of Southern College (currently known as Southern University College Malaysia). What most people do not know is that the name of Southern College was suggested by Mr Woon. Mr Woon strived tirelessly for the party and country with sincerity and honesty, and has never vied for fame. When I invited him to be interviewed at MCA Headquarters, he immediately accepted without any hesitation and undertook the long journey from Johor Bahru. I have the utmost respect for him, and am greatly indebted to him! (Through the hard work of the MCA leadership and through Dato’ Hou Kok Chung’s efforts, the Ministry of Education officially announced Southern College’s elevation to be a University on 19 June 2012.)

In 1961, the Rahman Talib Report proposed and subsequently enacted the Education Act 1961. Article 21(2) of the Act stated that: “Where at any time the Minister is satisfied that a National-type primary school may suitably be converted into a National primary school, he may directly order the said conversion.” This clause drew the concern and worry of the Chinese community. It was only until the enactment of a new Education Act in 1996 (Education Act 1996) that this clause was repealed. In fact, when the Parliament proposed the new educational decree in December 1995, Article 21(2) was repealed by the then Education Minister, and now our current Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak. Tan Sri Dr Fong Chan Onn, who was then Deputy Education Minister, was the person who represented MCA in formulating this new Education Act, thus leading to the successful repealing of Article 21(2) of the Education Act 1961.

Next, we come to Dato’ Hon Choon Kim’s recount of the two challenges posed to Chinese education during Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad’s Prime Ministership. These two challenges were “Vision Schools” (Sekolah Wawasan) and “the teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics in English” (PPSMI). Let us take a look at how MCA managed to overcome these challenges.

During his time as Deputy Minister of Education, Dato’ Hon Choon Kim delivered the formal approval letter for the establishment of University Tunku Abdul Rahman to MCA leaders. Currently, UTAR has 26,000 students enrolled. In 2017, UTAR’s Institute of Chinese Studies has 400 students (300 Bachelor students, 80 Masters students and 20 Doctoral students). At present, UTAR’s Institute of Chinese Studies employs 22 full-time educators, including 5 Associate Professors, 12 Assistant Professors and 5 lecturers. This is currently the largest Chinese faculty in a university in Malaysia and Singapore.

Beginning from the 1990s, Malaysia’s economy experienced rapid growth. With this growth, the youth in rural areas had the opportunity to receive their education and gradually moved towards urban areas. Many new townships and residential areas were mushrooming all around the country. Under these circumstances, the demand for new Chinese primary schools became an urgent issue. With Dato’ Hon Choon Kim in office as Deputy Education Minister, MCA actively sought for the government’s approval to establish 9 completely new Chinese primary schools and the relocation of 61 under-enrolled Chinese primary schools. These 89 Chinese primary schools allowed tens of thousands of pupils to be enrolled to receive their education.

Having heard the various experiences and thoughts of all MCA leaders who have previously held the Deputy Education Minister’s office, all party members should honour them with the greatest respect and deepest gratitude.

I wish for everyone to take away one important message from everything that has been shared: that is, political strength is extremely important. In 1995, it was our party’s victory in the general election that allowed us to smoothly resolve the debacle surrounding Article 21(2) of the Education Act 1961. Similarly, after the 1999 and 2004 general elections, MCA and BN received the support from the Chinese community and thus was able to obtain approval for the building and relocation of the 89 Chinese primary schools.

Unfortunately, MCA Deputy President Datuk Seri Dr Ir Wee Ka Siong is unable to speak for this time due to  inflammation of his vocal cords. This is regrettable. Dato’ Sri Wee Comrade has held the position of Deputy Education Minister after the general election in 2008. He has contributed tremendously towards the establishment of 89 new and relocated Chinese primary schools. After this, our Deputy President will produce a more professional album on Chinese education. I would also like to thank Datuk Chong Sin Woon, MCA Youth National Chairman for giving an explanation on this album.

To round things off, I wish to thank our party Deputy President Datuk Seri Dr Ir. Wee Ka Siong and MCA Youth Chairman Datuk Chong Sin Woon who provided this video with additional expert commentaries. They are both the former and present Deputy Education Minister respectively. I would also like to extend my gratitude to our party President for concluding this video clip. It is my greatest hope that this video will be able to inspire all MCA members and the Chinese community, granting us greater wisdom and vision to develop the future of Chinese education in Malaysia.

Fellow members, each time I organise and update our party’s records, I always hold this belief: our party has unequivocally contributed to our country and the Chinese community, with regards to politics, economy, culture and education. On this account, MCA will undoubtedly be able to overcome any and all challenges we may face, and bravely strive forward!

Dato' Seri Ong Ka Chuan

MCA Secretary General  

-MCA online-