by Lim Guan Eng

(Melaka, Wednesday): Chinese voters who supported and helped BN win Kota Melaka parliamentary seat for the first time in 35 years must feel deeply disillusioned by Melaka Chief Minister Datuk Mohd Ali Rustam’s opposition to building new Chinese primary schools and demand for action against employers seeking Mandarin-speaking staff. Mohd Ali must explain how  such a stand helps the Melaka Chinese community.

Mohd Ali was the first UMNO Vice-President to make such extremist statements when the Malay press highlighted the issues. Due to the shortage of Chinese primary schools in urban areas such as Kuala Lumpur and Johor Baru, the Chinese community had requested for new primary schools be built. Such shortage has resulted in Chinese primary schools having the worst teacher to student ratio.

According the the Ninth Malaysian Plan, the average class size for primary schools is 31 students in 2005 with the teacher to student ratio of 1:17.2. This compares with the average class size of 21.6 students and a teacher to student ratio of 1:16.5 in developed countries.

However these figures hide the fact that the average class size is low for national primary schools but high for Chinese primary schools. The average student classroom size for non-Chinese primary school is 25-30 students in rural areas and 35-40 students in urban areas. For Chinese primary schools the average class sizes is 35-40 students in rural areas and 40-50 students in urban areas. How can Chinese primary school students enjoy the full benefits of education given by teachers with an average class size of 40-50 students?

For this reason the Chinese community has made legitimate and reasonable demands in requesting the government to fulfill its obligations to promote education by building more Chinese primary schools. For Mohd Ali to oppose building of new Chinese primary schools ignores the contributions made by the Chinese community towards our nation’s prosperity and development.

Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir said a few months ago that most of the nation’s tax revenue collected were from the Chinese community which were then channeled for development projects that benefited the country, particularly the Malays. Mahathir even said that Malaysia would not enjoy the prosperity it achieved now were it not for the contributions of the Chinese community.

Clearly the Chinese community’s contributions to nation-building and national development are not appreciated. Worse, the reasonable demands of the Chinese community that their tax receipts be ploughed back for the development and building of new Chinese primary schools continue to be ignored and neglected.                                               

Mohd Ali was also the first UMNO leader to support Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s call for employers to stop being biased by hiring only workers who can speak Mandarin. DAP regrets that Najib does not understand that the employers are responding to the demands of the market-place for Chinese speaking staff and not practicing racial discrimination.

There is no racial discrimination as Malays who speak Mandarin are employed just as Chinese who are not proficient in Mandarin are not hired. Najib is wrong to try to interfered in what is purely a market decision to take advantage of the growing China and Indian market. In fact the one practicing racial discrimination is Najib as he does not criticize firms that only hires employees who are proficient in English.

DAP regrets that such double-standards are supported not only by Mohd Ali but also by Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr Fong Chan Onn. As an economist, he should have the courage and the professionalism to tell Najib and Mohd Ali that they are wrong and such restrictions on what type of employees the employers wish to hire would only affect business sentiment and drive away foreign investment.

Requiring employers to stop hiring employees to be proficient in Mandarin is no different from forcing them to lower their standards. Instead Najib should ask graduates to raise their standards by learning Mandarin to make themselves more employable or marketable.

Najib should realize that the number of unemployed university graduates are increasing every year because they lack the skills required. The number of university graduates had almost doubled from 45,000 in 2000 to 85,000 in 2005. 32% of the graduates or 27,200 had yet to secure jobs after completing their studies last year.

Instead of blaming the employers, the government should study why the graduates can not get jobs. To be competitive, the onus is not on the employers but on the graduates to make themselves appealing and in demand by employers, including the need to be proficient not only in Mandarin but also in English and other languages.

Is Datuk Mohd Ali Rustam’s unreasonable and irresponsible opposition to the building of new Chinese primary schools and calling for action against employers who seek Mandarin-speaking staff a just reward for Chinese voters who helped BN win Kota Melaka parliamentary seat?