PAS, MCA being two-faced on Jawi controversy - Guan Eng

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng has accused PAS and MCA of being two-faced when it comes to the controversy over the teaching of the Jawi script in vernacular schools.

According to interviews published in Oriental Daily today, Lim said the two parties appear to oppose the government’s plan to introduce Jawi lessons when speaking to a Malaysian Chinese audience in vernacular schools but support it when speaking to a Malay audience.

As an example, he said PAS has been calling for the United Chinese School Committees' Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong) - a vocal critic of the new policy - to be banned, when speaking to a Malay audience.

On the other hand, he said PAS had told the Chinese community that they are willing to set up a committee to discuss the matter.

He said political parties are to speak the same message regardless of the racial makeup of their audience.

“Non-Muslims must not fall for the opposition’s two-faced political games, but instead unite against racists and extremists.

“If BN wins, it would only weaken Pakatan Harapan. If you still don’t wake up to this, all I have to say is you’d have to explain this to your future generations,” he was quoted as saying.

Previously, PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan had said PAS is setting up the PAS-MCA Mahabbah Committee to hold dialogues on matters of public interest, including to discuss the Jawi issue with Dong Zong and the United Chinese School Teachers’ Association of Malaysia (Jiao Zong).

His MCA counterpart Chong Sin Woon said on Dec 27 last year that MCA has yet to decide on the matter.

Meanwhile, in the interview, Lim has denied allegations that DAP has been silent on key issues affecting the Chinese community.

“Take the Jawi issue for example. If it wasn’t for DAP taking a stand on the issue, how could the compulsory lessons become optional, the lessons were reduced to three pages, and parent-teacher associations get to decide whether their pupils would get to learn Jawi?”

He also highlighted that government funding for Chinese vernacular schools has increased. 

In an unprecedented move, Chinese independent high schools had received government funding as well.

Moreover, the funding was disbursed in the same year the allocations were made, which Lim said was an improvement over the previous administration.

“Did all these come because DAP had kept quiet?” he asked.