Speech (2) by Lim Kit Siang in Sibu on Friday, 7^th May 2010 at 11 am: 

Why SUPP candidate Lau Hui Yew is like other Barisan Nasional Ministers and leaders who have no confidence in their own school system by sending their children to international schools or overseas?

Another headline in Borneo Post today is “Zahid: Vote for Hui Yew to be heard in Dewan Rakyat”.

My first reaction is one of great skepticism and to ask why the SUPP candidate Robert Lau Hui Yew is like other Barisan Nasional Ministers and leaders who have no confidence in their own school system by sending their children to international schools or overseas.

Will Hui Yew speak up in Parliament against the national educational system over which he, like other BN Ministers and leaders, have no confidence by not sending their own children to them?

DAP candidate for Sibu by-election Wong Ho Leng has five children, all in the local schools – three in secondary and two in primary.

I have been informed that Robert Lau2 has sent all his three children to the international school in Kuching.

This is no personal attack on Robert Lau2 and DAP will not indulge in any personal attacks or character assassination in the Sibu by-election. What we are concerned about are the rights of the people and future generations.

In fact, I do not blame Robert Lau2 for sending all his children to international school as all parents want the best for their children.

However, as he seeks to represent the people of Sibu in Parliament, he owes the people of Sibu an explanation whether he would speak up against the Barisan Nasional’s national education system since he himself has no confidence in them or whether he would be like other BN leaders who act hypocritically in supporting the national school system for the rakyat but which he himself has no confidence whatsoever.

I am attracted to another frontpage headline in Borneo Post: “KLT (Kolej Laila Taib) may get uni college status before 2012”.

My reaction is: Why so late?

Ho Leng had called for a university in Sibu in the Sarawak State Assembly in 1996.

I myself had called for a Christian University in Sibu more than 30 years ago when the DAP was established in the late seventies.

My argument was that Malaysia should take full advantage of our excellent assets and endowments as a multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious nation at the confluence of the great civilizations of the world.

We should have in plural Malaysia not only an international Islamic University, but also Christian, Buddhist and Hindu universities. In Japan there is the world-famous Sophia Catholic University.

Unfortunately, my proposal for a Christian University in Sibu in the late seventies did not even find any support from the SUPP leaders

Sibu should have a full university by the eighties or nineties. Instead we hear about an university college status in 2012!

Is this progress or going backwards?

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