MCA condemns Dong Zong

They hope the Chinese will not support us. - Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek

LABIS: MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek has condemned the United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong) for bringing up an alleged agreement in the 1960s between the party and the Government to limit the number of Chinese independent schools.

“Dong Zong talks about this issue to frighten the Chinese community so they will hate the MCA and Barisan Nasional.

“They hope the Chinese will not support us,” he said.

He said that although MCA was not perfect, it was undeniable that the party was doing its best for Chinese education.

Citing an example, Dr Chua said Malaysia was the only country in the region that had a complete Chinese education system from primary to university level.

He was speaking to reporters after a ground-breaking ceremony for a double-storey building with 12 classrooms at SJK (C) Karas here yesterday.

Also present at the event were Labis MP and Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Deputy Minister Datuk Chua Tee Yong and Johor exco member Tan Kok Hong.

Dr Chua said whether or not the agreement existed in the 1960s was not important anymore as it had become history.

“The country needs more trilingual talent to increase its trade volume and the trade volume between Malaysia and countries that use Chinese as their main language is about 20% of the total.

“That's why we need to train more people to have good English, Bahasa Melayu and Mandarin,” he said.

“Today, Malaysia has a good relationship with China and the trade volume between the two countries has reached US$100bil (RM318bil),” he added.

On another matter, Dr Chua said Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had failed to answer if Pakatan Rakyat was going to build more Chinese primary schools, Chinese independent schools, institutionalise allocations for Chinese schools and recognise the Unified Examination Certificate should Pakatan take over Putrajaya.

“I have been waiting for the answer for the past two weeks,” he said. Dr Chua said Dong Zong should get the answer for the sake of Chinese education. (The Star)