Chong weighs in on controversy over English issue

KUCHING: Pakatan Harapan (PH) Sarawak has claimed that the state government rejected two proposals, which if accepted, would have enabled Sarawak to implement the English language as the medium of instruction in schools in the state.

Its chairman Chong Chieng Jen said one of the proposed options was autonomy in education whereby the Sarawak state government uses the additional 15 percent oil royalties to fund all expenditures for education in Sarawak.

“(In which case) we will then determine our own policies in education in Sarawak. This proposal was agreed by the federal PH government but, sad to say, was rejected by the state government. The state government wants the additional 15 percent oil royalties money for other use while federal government continue to pay for and control over the education in Sarawak,” he said yesterday.

He added the other option proposed was for the Sarawak state government to use a small portion of the RM31 billion reserves to set up private schools to teach in English while not charging the students any school fees.

“That proposal also was rejected by the Sarawak state government,” he said.

Chong who is also federal Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, also said the state government can always adopt one of the two options suggested by PH Sarawak if they truly want to implement English language as the medium of instruction in schools here.

On a related matter, Chong said it was hypocrisy of the highest degree for the elected representatives from Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) to condemn the statement made by Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik regarding the use of English as a medium of instruction in schools.

He explained that the condemnation was in fact against the very law passed by these same people or their predecessors when they were in the Barisan Nasional government.

Maszlee, in a written reply in the Parliament, had stated that usage of English as a medium of instruction would be illegal as it contravened the Federal Constitution.

Chong, who had defended the statement as referring to national schools and other type of schools, said what Maszlee had said was just a restatement of the position of the law passed by the BN government under the 1996 Education Act. That is nothing new.

“That is nothing new. Under the previous BN government, similar statements were also made in Parliament. Such policies were implemented with the full support of the Sarawak BN government.”