PSC has been rendered useless and meaningless by the breaking of tacit promise to hold election after reforms

Speech at DAP Bercham Dinner held on Sunday, August 21.2011

PSC has been rendered useless and meaningless by the breaking of tacit promise to hold election after reforms

It has been reported that a consortium of Chinese tycoons led by Genting giant Tan Sri Lim Kok Tay has planned to takeover Tan Sri Ananda Krishnan’s Pan Malaysian Pools Sdn Bhd.
The RM 2.1 billion takeover bid will lead to an expected annual profit of RM 200 million channeled to “Jana Pendidikan” –a trust fund for vernacular schools.

This huge amount of fund will certainly be of great financial help to the Chinese and Indian schools which have not been given fair treatment by the BN government.

But the immediate question that many people are now asking is whether the creation of such fund will cause the government to cut back its allocations to the vernacular schools.

Let me remind the government that it t is the government’s responsibility to accord fair treatment to all schools and hence it must not view the creation of the trust fund as a reason to abdicate its responsibility.

In fact, if the government has practiced fair educational policy, then the need for such a trust fund by the private sector will not be necessary at all.

According to official figures, under the 9th Malaysia Plan, the government’s monetary allocations to our children were as follows:

1) National schools - RM 33.30 per month per student
2) Tamil schools - RM 10.55 per month per student
3) Chinese schools - RM 4.50 per month per student
When the government continues to practice such unfair policy, 1 Malaysia concept will continue to ring hollow.

The continued practice of unfair polices has proven that the BN government in incapable of reform and change, even after having suffered its worst ever electoral debacle at the last general election.

Why can’t the BN government change? The simple reason is that it lacks the political will.

A very good and new example is the prime minister’s announcement that the next general election can be held anytime before the proposed Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on Electoral Reforms completes its work.

When Dato Sri Najib made the announcement to set up PSC , Malaysians have viewed it as his response to Bersih 2.0 demands and pressures, and hence as government’s tacit agreement to implement electoral reforms before the next general election.

So when Najib said that PSC is not related to the next general election and that the next general election can be held before PSC completes its work, he has broken the tacit promise to the people.

Whatever his reason for making such a flip flop, whether it is bowing to pressure from Umno hawks or realizing that BN cannot win in a free and fair election against Pakatan Rakyat, his about turn is totally unacceptable.

Najib had promised that Bersih 2.0 Rally could be held in a stadium but Bersih was not granted permission to hold the planned Rally at Merdeka Stadium though that was the tacit approval Malaysians understood.

Now he is doing a flip flop on the electoral reform issue.

My vote will be for DAP to stay out of the PSC as it has been rendered useless and meaningless by Najib’s breaking of his tacit promise to hold the next general election after electoral reforms .

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