Free Malaysia Today, March 9 2014
The groups of NGOs making these demands however have lost all hopes on the MCA.
KAJANG:
A group of three Chinese NGOs have put forth four demands and want the
Kajang by-election candidates to endorse them. The by-election is on
March 23.
The three NGOs are Sahabat Rakyat Working Committee, Melaka Chinese
Assembly Hall’s youth division and the youth wing of Kuala Lumpur and
Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall.
A group of 15 individuals also have endorsed the demands.
They are calling for an end to religious discrimination, free and
fair elections, an end to the New Economic Policy (NEP) and quotas
favouring the Bumiputras and equivalent treatment for mother tongue
education.
“We have seen how the Selangor Islamic Religious Department manipulated the the Allah name in the Bible issue.
“Hence we are calling upon the candidates to support moves to amend
the Selangor Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation Among
Muslims) Enactment 1988 that was suggested by three DAP lawmakers in
January,” said Sahabat Raya working committee spokesperson, Choo Shin
Chei.
The NGOs are also calling for the preservation of all faiths and
religions practiced by the minorities and want equal treatment to be
given to all places of worship.
On the call for free and fair election, they are supporting election watchdog, Bersih’s demands.
Speaking about their third demand, Choo said that the implementation
of the NEP and quotas for Bumiputera have only served to enrich the
elite capitalist Malays.
On calls for mother tongue education, the group are supporting demands by Chinese educationist group Dong Zong.
Dong Zong wants all parties to give the Unified Education Certificate
(UEC) its due recognition, land for the construction of additional
building for Yu Hua secondary school in Kajang and resolve land issues
that is confronted by New Era College in Sepang for the past 14 years.
No hopes on MCA
The group of NGOs are also calling for the revocation of Education
Act 1996, equivalent allocation for vernacular schools and land
allocation for 60 private Chinese independent schools.
They are also supporting calls for the setting up of a Tamil secondary school. The NGOs however do not have hope on the MCA.
“We don’t want to have high hopes on MCA. Even if they endorse our demands, their words are equivalent to garbage,” said Choo.
Another member, Tan Seng Hing added: “For the past 50 years we have
experience working with the MCA and we are not harboring hopes on them.”
The Kajang state seat fell vacant following the resignation of
incumbent assemblymen Lee Chin Cheh of PKR on Jan 27. The Election
Commission fixed March 23 as polling date and nomination day on March
11. Early polling would be held on March 19.
The state seat comprises 39,728 registered voters. At the last
general election in May 2013, the seat saw a voter turnout of 87.9% with
541 spoilt votes.
While PKR is currently in limbo over its candidate due to Anwar
Ibrahim’s conviction on sodomy charges, MCA is pitting its vice
president, Chew Mei Fun.
Former Kita party founder Zaid Ibrahim and Herman Tino are also interested in contesting the by-election as independents.
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