On Friday, MCA deputy president Wee Ka Siong told reporters that private firms should provide scholarship and improve school facilities after attending a cheque presentation ceremony from the Mah Sing Foundation to eight schools around Johor Baru.

Wee Ka Siong’s proposal proves that MCA has failed the Chinese community miserably to fight for a fair and just allocation to Chinese schools. MCA has also failed all Malaysians especially academically high-flyers that they will be granted a scholarship for the hard work and effort put into years of studies.

It is the government’s responsibility to improve school facilities and provide scholarships to academically-excellent Malaysians after collecting taxes from Malaysians.

Is Wee Ka Siong trying to shirk MCA’s responsibilities to fight for a fair allocation to Chinese schools after rejoining the cabinet? MCA has always argued that they need to rejoin the cabinet to fight for the rights of Chinese community. By shifting the responsibilities to private firms, has MCA now gone back on its own words after less than six months rejoining the cabinet?

There is no need for private firms to provide scholarship and improve schools facilities if the BN government allocated a fair share of sum to Chinese schools. To urge private firms to improve schools facilities is a ‘double taxation’ to the firms. Private firms have already paid taxes on the profit they made and the government should use the taxes collected to improve school facilities.

To be fair to the private firms that support Malaysian education, I urge Putrajaya to grant all education contributions as tax rebate. By granting a tax break to all education contributions, Malaysians will be more encouraged than ever to provide financial assistance to schools.

I urge Putrajaya to table a bill in parliament to amend the Income Tax Act 1967 in order to grant all types of education contributions as tax rebate. Let us solve the controversy of unfair education funding once and for all.

CHONG ZHEMIN is Perak DAP Economic Development Bureau chief and political secretary to the Taiping MP.