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EC sits on sidelines as BN abuses gov't machinery
Published:  Apr 18, 2013 11:12 AM
Updated: 7:32 AM

YOURSAY 'Hundreds of thousands of students did not have teachers for the day because of BN misused government resources to bash the opposition.'

BN uses ministry meeting with teachers to campaign

your say Lim Chong Leong: "We accept the existence of Chinese schools as a reality. We give priority to national schools, that's true... but we also accept the fact that Chinese schools have long been here and Chinese community is a community that emphasises its language and culture... we practice acceptance of difference," said caretaker DPM Muhyiddin Yassin.

He says it as if Chinese schools are a paralysing deformity that we have to live with.

Onyourtoes: We do not want your ad hoc allocations. We want definite and periodic allocations just like the national schools.

We do not want relocation or exchange of one Chinese school with another school. We want new Chinese schools in places where they are needed.

We do not want to queue up overnight just to get our children enrolled to a Chinese school. We want these schools to be readily available near our homes.

We pay the taxes; we pay the salary of teachers, headmasters and ministers. So just do what we tell you - you don't have to tell us what is good, what is bad, what is national and what is anti-national. You are no smarter than us.

Clever Voter: Both Umno and MCA are desperately seeking support even at this hour. You can force the government employees to attend, coerce them to make their pledge or even threaten them, but you cannot remove their dignity, spirit and belief that change is here, and must take place.

For all the injustice and awful treatment, these people in power must be removed.

2LAN: This is not the first time for such an event. My friend attended a similar meeting last week. He said the teachers who attended became even more convinced of BN's abuse of power.

They use every trick, crooked and all, instead of offering better policies to eradicate corruption, and promote meritocracy and transparency.

Anak Perak: If these Chinese school teachers can be so easily swayed by Muhyiddin's sweet talk, then they deserve to suffer the next five years.

To those Chinese schools, all I can say is to take the money. After all, it belongs to the rakyat, not BN, Umno or MCA, then vote Pakatan Rakyat.

StevenForMalaysia: Yes, there is no choice for the teachers who are at the whims and fancy of the BN ministers who think this country belonged to their grandfather and the Chinese should be grateful for the government has provide them Chinese education; the only country outside of China where Chinese education is part of the national education system.

They never know that the Chinese and Indians had been working hand in hand with them to free themselves from the British rule, hence this country belongs to all and mother-language education shall be a responsibility of the government.

Patriot: I guess no one in the audience stood up to rebut or counter the speakers. Let me share an experience that took place in Seremban not long ago.

When BR1M 1.0 was handed out to parents by the BN representative after a lengthy speech (more than an hour), a parent went straight to this rep and told him off right to his face, saying him he was wasting his time with his speech and that most of the people there would vote for Pakatan anyway.

The rep was red-faced and the parent calmed down before things got out of hand. This parent happened to a Chinese. People applauded him after that and the BN rep walked off from the event, without saying a word.

I wondered what would have happened if the same parent was there during the meeting session with the Chinese teachers in Johor Bahru.

Jiminy Qrikert: Patriot, your account is just one instance of a Chinese amongst the audience telling the BN rep to his face to stop lying. This is a phenomenon that emerged prior to GE12 where the Chinese abandoned the so-called Chinese parties - Gerakan and MCA.

Gerakan was wiped out in Penang. MCA was nearly wiped out in Selangor. Even then, there were stories circulating of Chinese old folks going right up to the MCA workers and scolding them for being running dogs.

This anti-BN-MCA-Gerakan sentiment amongst the Chinese has only deepened over the last five years. A core reason is simply that the majority of Chinese now realise race-based politics cannot work if Chinese are to truly embrace being Malaysians.

This is why Malaysian Chinese today, especially the youth, are Malaysians first, Chinese second. Malays will continue to dominate the country by their sheer number, but Chinese want to be Malaysians who are treated equally without discrimination. This is what BN does not understand.

Artong Penang: Former education minister Anwar Ibrahim was not alone when the decision was made to victimise Chinese schools in 1987. Then PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad was the mastermind behind this racial policy.

The rest of Dr M's non-Malay cabinet ministers (in particular MCA ministers) were equally to be blamed for not having the guts to challenge Umno's racial educational policy in 1987. MCA should have left BN 26 years ago if they were sincere in championing Chinese's education.

MCA deputy president Liow Tiong Lai, shame on you for not speaking the truth.

Dupa Horse: Who is kidding who? Who are more dumb? Those on stage or those on the floor? You can take a horse to a pond but you can't force it to drink the water, right?

Joker: How much money spent for transport and expenses to hold this JB meeting? Is this 'education related'? Hundreds of thousands of students did not have teachers for the day because of BN misused government resources to bash the opposition.

I guess the Election Commission (EC) will not take action either because they are powerless to do so or that they don't see anything wrong as no money exchanged hands.

Hmmmmmmmm: Not a squeak from EC as usual. The ministers wasted the teachers' time having to listen to their campaign speeches.

Was anything said in the event that was remotely connected to their work? Now you wonder why we are all against BN.


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