Media Conference Statement by Lim Kit Siang in Parliament on Tuesday, 15^th December 2009: 

Greatest disappointment that Najib failed to “walk the talk” with concrete action whether on recognition of Unified Examination Certificate or institutionalize government funding of Independent Chinese Secondary Schools

Yesterday, the Chinese press gave front page headline treatment to the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s message for the 90th anniversary celebrations of the Chong Hwa Independent High School in Kuala Lumpur, but this has been replaced with deep disappointment and sadness that the Prime Minister has again failed to “walk the talk” like his “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now” motto, his pledge to front-line transparency and to combat corruption.

Najib’s message for the Chong Hwa Independent High School 90th anniversary celebrations souvenir publication stands out as the best message ever given by any Prime Minister in the past five decades, crediting the Chinese Independent Secondary Schools as “important national assets” not only of the Chinese in Malaysia but of the country and extolling their contributions to nation building particularly in human resource development.

This has raised sky-high expectations that Najib would announce concrete actions to “walk the talk” of his message and it was a great disappointment all round that he attended the Chong Hwa Independent High School 90th anniversary dinner last night completely empty-handed.

There was neither announcement of recognition of the Unified Examination Certificate which is recognized by reputable universities worldwide or concrete action by the federal government to institutionalize government support and funding for the 60 Chinese Independent Secondary Schools despite the Prime Minister’s acknowledgement of their being “national assets” and important contribution to nation-building.

This is a major failure of the KPI of the Najib administration – failing to “walk the talk” to synchorise what it says publicly with what the government is doing actually.

It will most regrettable if all this is just for propaganda to score political points without any political will to translate them into government policies and practices.

The Cabinet should a special meeting to translate into action what the Prime Minister said in his message for the Chong Hwa Independent High School 90th anniversary celebrations, as Malaysians do not want the Prime Minister just to give “beautiful” messages but to translate words into action.

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary leader & MP for Ipoh Timor