KUALA LUMPUR: The Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia (Huazong) hopes the Perikatan National (PN) Government will be more open in dealing with the development of Chinese education in the country.
This includes to allocate annual grants to Chinese independent secondary schools and to recognize the United Examination Certificate (UEC).
Urging this, its president Tan Sri T.C Goh also hoped that the PN Government could allocate annual grants to public colleges established-and-run by the Chinese community.
While noting that due to harsh political reality, the new Federal Cabinet line-up has only five Chinese elected representatives holding full and deputy minister posts, the least in the history of Malaysia, Goh nonetheless acknowledged that the Chinese community are still hopeful and convinced that the PN Government would treat them fair.
“Even though presently there are only five Chinese full and deputy ministers (in the Federal Cabinet), the Chinese are still the nation’s second largest ethnic group that made up close to a quarter of the total population. We in Huazong therefore believe the current government will continue to care for and to resolve problems affecting the Chinese community,” he said in a statement issued today.
Commenting on the new Cabinet line-up which was sworn in today, Goh noted that it comprises of 70 full and deputy ministers, the second largest in the history of Malaysia after the 92-member Cabinet previously established by former prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahamad Badawi. Goh said such an enormous Cabinet reflected prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s aspiration and determination to better administer the country, and to bring progress and prosperity to the people.
He also welcomed the non-political appointment of prominent banker cum former CIMB CEO Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz as Finance Minister, and Datuk Seri Dr Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri to hold Religious Affairs portfolio in the Prime Minister’s Department. He recalled that such non-political appointment also occurred during Barisan Nasional (BN) era, where after the 12th general election in 2013, former Maybank CEO Tan Sri Abdul Wahid Omar was appointed as the senator before he was made the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), and subsequently appointed as the Chairman of Permodalan Nasional Bnd (PNB).
Goh also commended the PN Government for giving special focus to key areas like environment conservation, national unity, education development, and Sabah and Sarawak, by creating the relevant portfolios.
He also described the new Federal Cabinet as “well balanced-and-inclusive” besides a “clean-and-acceptable” one, as it consists of old and young elected representatives of different races who have been thoroughly screened-and-filtered by the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
He hoped that with the political situation in the country now stabilized, the PN Government and its new Cabinet could move full swing to revitalize the economy, to combat the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak, and ultimately to bring peace and progress to the country and the people.-pr/BNN
