The premier’s failure to pledge recognition of United Examination Certificate (UEC) is reflective of the fact that he has been manipulating the United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong), said DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang.

NONE Saying this was intended to raise false hopes among Chinese Malaysians, he said Najib Abdul Razak has “completely no political will to solve the problem of Chinese education”.

In a statement, he said the “community was fooled by Najib on April Fool's Day” as no announcement was made to recognise the UEC during a meeting with Dong Zong representatives yesterday.

The three major issues raised by Dong Zong - unconditional recognition of UEC, approval to build four new Chinese independent secondary schools, and a review of the National Education Blueprint - are issues that have been faced by the community for the past 50 years, Lim pointed out.

lim kit siang front “However, Najib, who was once education minister, said 'Please give me some time. After all, for any change in policy, I need to further market the general concept of this policy for it to be accepted by all quarters',” said Lim (left) .

“Does this mean Najib's concept of 1Malaysia is completely rejected by his administrative team, forcing him to become a 'salesman' in order to market the concept of solving Chinese education problems?”

If Najib understands the problems of Chinese education and agrees that these three issues should be given priority, said Lim, then he must act immediately.

“If Najib has no intention to immediately solve the problems of Chinese education, the DAP and Pakatan Rakyat pledge to implement these three education promises and include mother-tongue education in the national mainstream education stream,” he added.

Lim, the incumbent Timor Ipoh MP, will contest the Gelang Patah parliamentary constituency in Johor, in the 13th general election.

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