Liow: M’sia laid solid foundation for Mandarin
Past leaders fought hard to defend vernacular schools, says MCA president
JELEBU: While many in other parts of the world scramble to learn Mandarin following the rise of China as a superpower, Malaysia has already laid a solid foundation of the language among its citizens, said MCA president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.
He said this was made possible because of the strong political representatives of the Chinese in the Government.
“When our neighbouring countries were abolishing Chinese education, our ancestors fought hard to defend the vernacular school system.
“Not only this, we develop it further, making Chinese education in Malaysia the most comprehensive one among non-Chinese native countries.
“We are far ahead of others now and enjoying the fruits laboured by our ancestors,” he told representatives from some 50 local Chinese-based NGOs at a dialogue yesterday held in conjunction with MCA’s “Jom Gerak: Teguh Bersama” (Let’s get moving: Stronger together) carnival in Titi near here.
Also present were MCA vice-president Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun, Youth chairman Datuk Chong Sin Woon and Negri Sembilan MCA chief Datuk Seri King Lim Chin Fui.
On governance, Liow stressed the need to have representatives from all races in the Government to ensure check and balance at decision-making level.
He said the Chinese community had felt the impact brought by the lack of MCA representatives in the state government and local councils.
At the dialogue, the local people voiced their grouses and highlighted long-standing issues they faced over the past years when the party lost all the parliamentary and state seats in Negri Sembilan in the 2013 general election.
Of the issues, many were related to the renewal of agriculture land, cemetery land and allocation for local amenities.
Titi is under the Chennah state constituency. Chennah’s elected representative is Anthony Loke from DAP.
Liow said the local MCA leaders, who did not hold any position in the state government or local councils, have gone out of their way to help the people.
“Although difficult, we are not giving up and will continue to do it for the benefit of the people,” he added.
The Jom Gerak programme is a series of carnivals nationwide to enable MCA central leaders to interact and forge closer ties with grassroots members, as well as the public.
Liow later joined hundreds of villagers at a motivational session.