Wee chased out from Chinese education rally:Don't blame anyone but yourself,warns Jui Meng

Deputy Education Minister Wee Ka Siong has no one to blame but himself for refusing to listen to the people, said PKR leaders who attended the Dong Zong rally to protest the shortage of Chinese primary school teachers.

The "deafness" of the MCA leaders culminated in a most embarrassing situation for Wee, who had to be escorted by police to his seat and later when he made his exit.

"Serves him right. This is a real eyeopener for him and MCA. So far, they have been throwing their weight around refusing to admit their faults and completely depending on the government media like the Star and NST to cover up for them. But don't they realize, this only makes the people even more angry," PKR vice president Chua Jui Meng told Malaysia Chronicle.

"Even today, when the crowd booed at Wee, he pretended as though nothing had happened. He should have straightaway sized up the situation, apologized and own up. And if the crowd is still unhappy, apologize again and leave like a gentleman. But he remained smiling and waving at the crowd as though he's the Queen even when the boos got louder and louder. The people were really hopping mad and yet he dares to accuse them of being uncivilized. What type of leadership is this - nothing is ever Umno's or MCA's fault?"

Who's not a civilized society

Nearly 10,000 people had gathered at the Dong Zong or United Chinese School Committees Association headquarters on Sunday to stage the protest. The crowd, mostly Chinese educationists and NGOs filled the nearby field as they held up banners demanding the government resolve the shortage.

Several RELA personnel were seen and a small unit of about 20 police personnel were stationed inside the field and at the entrance of the neighbouring New Era College. When Ka Siong arrived, the crowd booed and heckled at him relentlessly.

“I can’t say I felt threatened but it was a rude shock to me. Suddenly people come and point at you and want to punch you. I am saddened. We are not hooligans. We are a civilised society,” Ka Siong later told a press conference after the even t was over.

A very sore point

The lack of teachers has been a sore point for Chinese educationist. Many were unhappy also with the government for placing non-Chinese speaking teachers to temporarily alleviate the problem.

Apart from Jui Meng, many opposition leaders also turned up at the rally including PKR vice president Tian Chua, Seputeh MP Teresa Kok, PKR secretary general Saifuddin Nasution. Several members of PAS were also present as a show of support, and a small group of Tamil school representatives also attended the rally.

Dong Zong president Yap Sin Tian in his speech said the rally aims to make a point of how serious the shortage is, and for the immediate removal of the non-Chinese speaking teachers placed in the primary schools earlier this year. He also demanded the Education Ministry institutes a transparent system to resolve the shortage.

“We see so many people from all over the country coming to this rally. This is because we are protesting the unfair policies of the Education Ministry all these years. Over the past months we have reported to the ministry the seriousness of the situation and asked for action, but until the matter remains unsolved,” the Sundaily reported Yap as saying.

His speech was punctuated with loud cheers from the crowd.

Lack of will

Yap also said not only was the shortage yet to be resolved, the government has placed more and more non-Chinese speaking teachers in schools for subjects other than English and Bahasa Malaysia.

“The ministry continues to say that it needs to gather more complete and up-to-date information on this matter. This is a matter of a lack of will, not lack of ability,” he stressed.

He also announced four resolutions which is expected to be passed in the rally to effectively solve the problem, including asking the ministry to immediately transfer out all teachers without the required SPM Chinese language qualification from Chinese primary schools.

It also wanted the ministry to conduct special courses for Chinese primary school Chinese language teachers who have taught Bahasa Malaysia or English for at least three years so that they also are qualified to teach all three languages.

Other resolutions are calling for a reform of the teachers training syllabus so that more qualified Chinese speaking teachers can be trained to fulfill needs of Chinese schools and a review of the Education Act to ensure vernacular schools are accorded equal status and safeguarded.