The Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall biennial elections yesterday witnessed a clean sweep of all 17 positions of committee members by the pro-reform faction and reaffirmed its vocal stand on numerous issues.

Many from the pro-reform faction were incumbent committee members. Drawing the most support were outgoing SCAH deputy president Tan Yew Sing and honourary secretary Lee Yuh Shoo, who obtained 199 and 197 votes respectively.

The elections were attended by representatives from 226 member organisations under SCAH, the umbrella group to hundreds of Chinese guilds and associations in the state. Each representative was entitled to vote for 17 new committee members.

The committee has 45 members, 17 of whom are elected every two years. Another 22 are permanent members representing Chinese organisations which helped found the association 70 years ago, while the remaining six are appointed members.

Following the polling results yesterday, the 17 elected members are expected to run into a head-on with the other 22 permanent members on May 5, when the committee will meet to choose within itself the new leaders, including the president, deputy president, and four vice-presidents.

The elected members have long advocated the abolishment of the status of permanent members in the name of restoring democratic practice within SCAH.

Hotly contested

In 1999, the pro-reform faction had successfully called for an extraordinary general meeting and persuaded more than 150 members to adopt such a resolution.

However, this move has met with opposition and resistance from permanent members led by Liew Poon Shiak, president of the Federation of Chinese Guilds and Associations in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.

Liew was the deputy president and honorary secretary of SCAH during the 1990s. The veteran leader is now seen as being close to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad after serving tea to the premier in a ceremony at a National Day celebration last August.

It is rumoured that former deputy president Tan who runs Inti International Group of Colleges, is backed by SCAH outgoing chief Ngan Ching Wen and will vie for the top post.

The leadership of SCAH has been hotly contested in the past by candidates representing different partisan and non-partisan political interests as it is known to be an opinion-shaping group concerning Chinese affairs in the country.

The organisation was instrumental in drafting Suqiu or the Malaysian Chinese Organisations Election Appeals, a 17-point memorandum presented to the government before the 1999 general election urging for a fairer country.

Suqiu key leaders, however, backed down later when certain appeals, especially one which called for the abolition of the distinction between bumiputra and non-bumiputra, came under heavy fire from the Umno-led government.

Resolutions

At the meeting yesterday, all Chinese organisations present also unanimously adopted 13 resolutions urging the government to, among others:

  • To abolish its ultimate objective (which seeks to use only national language Bahasa Melayu for education purpose) and censure those who advocate for the closure of national-type schools;

  • To respect the wishes of the ethnic Chinese and abandon the Vision School project (a proposal to place primary schools of different teaching mediums in the same compound to promote racial integration);

  • To keep its promise of building more Chinese primary schools to cater for the growing Chinese Malaysian population in different areas;

  • To re-open the original site of SJK(C) Damansara (which has been closed down for more than a year) and to assign teachers there so that the students concerned can return to the school for studies;

  • To learn from its past failures and stop privatising public utilities such as water supply; as well as to gather public opinion before making such deals;

  • To formulate policies which may help the industry sector, regardless of race, to face the challenge of globalisation; and

  • To review the use of the Internal Security Act (ISA) and to either release opposition politicians who are held under the security law or charge them in court.

    • SCAH also urged MCA to dispose the shares that the party obtained last May in Nanyang Press Holdings, publisher of Chinese dailies Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press .

    In yet another resolution, the organisation condemned the Israeli military aggression in Palestinian territories and urged the international community to take strict measures to stop further violence in that country.