DAP’s secretary-general Anthony Loke Siew Fook thinks that there is no more controversy over the breweries donating funds to Chinese vernacular schools.
He said the Cabinet has decided that while the Education Ministry’s directive stays, Chinese schools can receive funds like before as long as the exercise does not involve Muslim pupils.
The controversy might be over temporarily over but the existence of vernacular schools is perpetually controversial in the country.
Loke might not be aware that the root cause of the entire controversy is not so much donations from breweries but whether the Malay nationalists can accept the existence of vernacular schools in the country.
This time around it could be about the nature of donations but it something else could pop up in the future.
As long as there are vernacular schools, those who are vehemently opposed to them will not run out of issues.
As a typical yes-man, Loke is glad that the controversy over the funding issue is over. But the obnoxious directive for forbidding the receipt of funds from breweries is still there.
An effective DAP leader would have urged the cabinet to rescind the ban. But he unfortunately failed to take delight in the temporarily solution proffered by the cabinet.
With this temporary solution, Loke is going to town proclaiming the great deed of DAP. It looks like MCA and Gerakan are better and more effective defenders of the vernacular school system than DAP.
As I usually say, power, position and perks have relegated DAP to a powerless position in the Madani government despite boasting 40 MPs in the Parliament.
Loke misses the point of why Chinese vernacular schools need to rely on private funding. If the government provides adequate funding, then why the need to seek financial assistance from private donors like the breweries?
As a leader of a party with the most number of MPs, Loke surely can ask for more financial assistance from the government for the Chinese vernacular schools. Why has he not done so?
Unfortunately, Loke lacks the will after political remains as a just a passenger in the Cabinet. It is truly sad that DAP which is the so-called champion of non-Malays – particularly the Chinese – has been defanged. – July 30, 2024
David Marshel is deputy chairman of the United Rights of Malaysian Party (Urimai) interim council.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
