Najib: I spent more on Chinese schools in 9 years than former PM

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak said he has allocated more for Chinese vernacular schools in his nine years of premiership than former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad's 22 years in office.

“Even though I have only been the prime minister for nine years, I have approved far more allocations for Chinese vernacular schools than someone who was prime minister for 22 years.

“You can check the record,” he said.

Although he did not mention Mahathir's name, he was clearly referring to the former premier, now chairing the opposition front Pakatan Harapan.

He was speaking to a 15,000-strong crowd at the MCA-organised “Malaysian Chinese Patriotic Rally” event held at Putra World Trade Centre today.

Najib added he understands the two top concerns of the Chinese community, purportedly economic wealth and quality education.

“I want to say in this rally that as a government, we are prepared to approve more Chinese vernacular schools,” he said.

Of course, he said, this will be discussed with the other BN component parties first such as MCA, Gerakan and SUPP, to ensure that this will be a BN decision.

However, he also implored the Chinese crowd to also strengthen their proficiency in the national language once they get more Chinese vernacular schools.

“You can learn Chinese, but please speak good Malay.

“Don’t say ‘gua’ anymore. Don’t say ‘lu’ anymore,” he said.

‘Gua’ and ‘lu’ are colloquial Malay for ‘me’ and ‘you’ respectively.

Students told rally 'compulsory'

The rally today had earlier courted controversy when PKR’s Selayang MP William Leong claimed MCA had “forced” Chinese students from Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TAR UC) to attend it.

PKR Youth leader Chua Wei Kiat had also alleged that TAR UC scholars had been told that they need to support events related to the university college as one of the conditions for enjoying their scholarships.

TAR UC head of centre Yeoh Hock Seng responded to the allegations saying, while the university college encourages student leaders and scholarship holders to attend the rally, it would not force anyone to attend.

Approximately 300 TAR UC Setapak students were spotted at the rally today.

Some of the students Malaysiakini spoke to claimed they had been told it is compulsory to attend the rally.

“Yeah, we received the letter on Monday, asking us to attend today’s rally. It is compulsory,” said a TAR UC scholar, who wanted to remain anonymous. - Mkini