MCA has claimed credit and victory, and ‘breaths a sigh of relief’ over the Government’s announcement on straight A’s students (specifically including A Minus), because the latter can no longer stand public criticism as a result the former’s relentless championing of the cause.
Such thick skinned gall and shameless audacity.
To the leaders of MCA:
Since the Matrikulasi system was introduced under your watch in 2005, tell us—in which year, which intake, even once—was there a policy ensuring all SPM students who scored 10As (A+, A, or A-) were fairly admitted?
Which year? Which cohort? Not even once?
Don’t talk about a “people’s victory” when, under your administration, the people hardly ever won anything—certainly not on education justice.
Now that a long-overdue correction has been made, you’re the first to “breathe a sigh of relief” and throw in emojis like you somehow championed this reform.
Forgive the people for still having a sense of smell—
because that “sigh of relief” you just let out?
Smells a lot more like the stale, trapped gas of political negligence your party left behind for others to clean up.
You had no issue “holding it in” for years.
Now we’re the ones who “can’t hold it back” any longer—not from pressure, but from conscience.
What we’re pushing back against is the institutionalised unfairness, the structural decay, and the wilful ignorance you allowed to rot through our education system.
You call this a U-turn?
No—it’s a course correction.
It’s a government finally steering policy away from the off-ramp you drove it into.
When you held firm there was nothing you could do for all these years, students with A+ and A felt hopeless. Students with A- felt invisible.
Now that we refuse to hold back, straight A students see a glimpse of fairness restored.
And before you start waving that “slap in the face” placard—
No, this isn’t a slap.
This is a wake-up call—for those who failed to fix the system when they could, but now want to claim the credit when others do the heavy lifting.
A “people’s victory”? That’s easy for you to say.
Let history remember clearly:
It was you who stood in the way of reform,
And it is us who are now standing against the current to deliver it.
If there’s anyone who needs to make a U-turn,
It’s not this government—
It’s those who spent decades driving in circles and still believe they had the right sense of direction.
Howard Lee
DAP Director of Political Education
Member of Parliament for Ipoh Timor
