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The Malaysian Chinese Organisations' Election Appeals 16th August 1999 Preamble The coming general elections will elect the Government and peoples' representatives who will lead the country into the next millennium. Forty-two years after Independence, Malaysia has evolved into a dynamic multi-ethnic nation with progress in all sectors, thanks to the efforts made by Malaysians of all ethnic communities. However, certain national policies, especially those related to equality between ethnic communities, democracy, human rights and judicial autonomy, still leave much room for improvement. The economic crisis of the last two years and the Nipah virus epidemic are two recent disasters which have caused the Chinese organisations to take serious stock of the future of this country. The government should have a more comprehensive integrated plan to develop our small and medium-scale industries as well as New Villages which have been established more than fifty years ago. While the government endeavours to carry out mega projects in our schools still faced by lack of funding, classrooms and teachers. We hardly need to point out the depressed sectors among our indigenous peoples, estate workers, urban settlers and small farmers. Besides, we are very concerned about corruption, deviations in the implementation of government policies, lack of accountability and transparency, bias of the media, all of which have aroused public concern. In view of our love for the country and apprehensions for the future, we call upon all political parties and candidates in the coming general elections to declare their support and endorsement of our appeals, and we urge all Malaysian to jointly work together towards the realisation of these appeals. 1. Promote National Unity National unity must be based on the interests of all Malaysian irrespective of race. Unity and solidarity can only be forged in an environment in which there is equality and non-discrimination: Enact a Race Relations Act to combat racism, racialism and race discrimination and institute a Race Relations Commision; Affirmative action should be based on the protection and enhancement of the status of the weaker sectors and not on race, social background and religious belief; Take steps to abolish in all aspects, the "bumiputera / non-bumiputera" distinction. 2. Advance Democracy Democracy is more than the ritual casting of a ballot once every five years -- there must be democracy at all levels of government in order that we can realise parliamentary democracy and ensure free and fair elections: Delineate constituencies based on the principle of "one person one vote" -- the discrepancy in the number of voters in different constituencies should not exceed 15% as practised at the time of Independence, to ensure fair representation in all constituencies; Reintroduce elected local governments; Senators must be elected. 3. Uphold Human Rights and Justice Human rights must be upheld for the political, social, cultural and economic benefit of all peoples and for justice, peace and freedom in our country: Ratify all the international convenants and United Nations Conventions; Extend the powers of the Malaysian Human Rights Commission to ensure that it is independent and representative; Ensure that the judiciary and the office of the Attorney-Genral are independent; Repeal the long-existing Internal Security Act in line with social development; Enact a Freedom of Information Act; Amend the Trade Union Act, the Sedition Act, the Printing Presses and Publications Act, the Police Act, the Universities and University Colleges Act to bring them into line with human rights standards; Protect and guarantee the freedom of speech, assembly and association. 4. Curb Corruption Corruption is one of the biggest obstacles to the nation's deveopment. It has not only deprived the people of benefits but has adversely affected the functioning of the government administration and erodes accountability. Corruption must be eradicated at all levels of the government and civil service: Reconstitute the Anti-Corruption Agency so that it is independent and accountable to Parliament; Enact a law whereby all elected representatives and senior civil servants must publicly declare their assets. 5. A Fair and Equitable Economic Policy It is time to review the country's economic policy and overcome the weaknesses that have been exposed during the recent financial crisis. Businesses must be allowed the opportunity to compete on a fair basis regardless of race, and contracts and shares must not be given out through nepotism, cronyism and corruption. It is clear that modernisation and development of the small & medium industries have been grossly neglected while the Government has focussed on the business and industrial development of the Bumiputeras during the last thirty years. The Government has also been negligent in the handling of the plight of pig rearers and victims of the epidemic during the recent crisis in the pig-rearing industry: Promote the development and modernisation of small and medium industries in the country; Formulate and implement a sustainable agricultural policy; Provide fair and adequate support to all sectors including pig-farming industry; Distribute land fairly and justly to farmers of all ethnic communities; Abolish the quota system based on "race" and replace it with a means-tested sliding scale; Ensure that the Malaysian workers' EPF and other public funds are adequately represented by workers' organisations to guarantee proper management of the funds. 6. Review the Privatisation Policy The objective of privatising our public utilities is to improve efficiency and alleviate the economic burden on the public sector. Although certain privatised utilities have provided more convenience to the people and enhanced economic growth, the lack of transparency in their operation has given rise to private monopolies. This has added to the burden on the people, led to the practice of cronyism and placed obstacles in the way of further economic development: Focus on the public interest in all privatisation exercises; Practice open tendering for all privatisation contracts; Set up a public Utilities Commission to oversee and appraise privated utilities so as to protect the public interest. Roll back the privatisation of the health service to enable the Malaysian public, especially the lower income groups to enjoy an affordable and efficient public health service; Enact anti-monopoly legislation to prevent monopoly of privatised services; Review the privatised sewerage services to alleviate the burden on consumers; Disallow the privatisation and imposition of toll on upgraded roads and roads within the city limits. 7. An Enlightened, Liberal and Progressive Education Policy To face the challenges of the next century, we must review the entire Malaysian education system both in relation to human potential, human resource demands as well as creativity, initiative and critical faculties of our students. The Chinese organisations are particularly concerned that the 1996 Education Act does not give fair treatment to the mother tongue education of the Chinese, Tamil and other ethnic minorities in our country. Chinese and Tamil primary schools are today in crisis because they face inadequate funding, classrooms and teachers: Amend the Education Act 1996 to reflect the national education policy as originally stated in the Education Ordinance 1957 ensuring the use, teaching and development of the mother tongue of all Malaysian ethnic communities; Increase the number of Chinese and Tamil schools especially in residential areas where there is a demand for those schools so as not to deprive these pupils of their mother tongue education; Solve to the long-existing crisis of teacher-shortage in the Chinese and Tamil schools; Revoke the plan for "Vision Schools" and other measures to appoint non-Mandarin speaking teachers to high positions in Chinese primary schools in order to maintain the character of these schools; Ensure fair and adequate financial allocation for teacher training, curriculum development, textbooks, infrastructure and hardware to all language streams and education bodies involved in developing mother tongue education; Implement formal educational programmers, train teachers, design curricula and provide teaching materials for the respective mother tongue education systems in Malaysia; Make available compulsory Pupils' Own Language (POL) classes within the normal school curriculum as long as there are five pupils of any ethnic community in any school; Increase the expenditure allocation for education; Improve the salaries and conditions of teachers; Introduce a system of student grants and loans for all, irrespective of ethnicity, based on a means-tested sliding scale; Recognise the Unified Examination Certificate of the Malaysian Independent Chinese Secondary Schools; Allow more additional independence Chinese Secondary School to be establish and subsidise their development; Build more primary shools, secondary schools, colleges and universities in line with our country's population growth; Recognise the degrees conferred by accredited educational institutions including the former Nanyang University and universities of China, Taiwan and other non-English language universities; Relinquish the racial-based quota system for university admission. 8. Let Our Multi-Ethnic Cultures Flourish Malaysia is a multi-cultural society. The existing National Cultural Policy of the Government is inclined towards mono-cultural, hindering the flourishing of our country's myriad cultures. The formulation of a cultural policy based on the pluralistic nature of our country is crucial to remedying this situation: Institute a more liberal and diversified arts and cultural policy; Provide arts support grants and promote cultural activities of all Malaysian ethnic groups; Statutory authorities at all levels must to encourage multi-culturalism; Make available national artistic and literacy awards and scholarships to all Malaysians regardless of race and language; Ensure fair representation of all the various Malaysian cultures in official cultural bodies and the media; Encourage and facilitate international cultural exchange; Promote and educate Malaysians to respect the religions of the different peoples in the country and strengthen the exchange between the various religious bodies in the country. All Malaysia religions should receive fair treatment in their propagation, development and official financial support as well as access to the media. 9. Protect the Malaysian Environment All development projects which impinge on highlands, forests, wetlands, burial gounds and other heritage sites must be subject to more stringent control. Laws and standards of environment protection in Malaysia need to be enforced strictly: Ensure that dam projects do not damage the environment; Impose strict energy and water conservation measures; Regazette all previously gazetted forest and wildlife reserves; Strictly enforce the existing forestry and environmental protection laws to prevent unscrupulous logging activities; Impose tax on energy consumption and carbon gas and other harmful emissions; Beautify burial grounds and ensure that no burial ground has to give away to development purposes; Offer incentives to industries relating to solar-energy and other sustainable energy sources. 10. Develop and Modernise New Villages Fifty years after their establishment, the 452 New Villages in the country where some 1.5 million Chinese Malaysians inhabit, are still excluded from the mainstream of the national economic development plans. Their basic infrastructure still need improvement and, many do not have their land titles or have these renewed: Ensure that land titles of all New Villagers are given to them as soon as possible; Finalise a development plan for the New Villages as soon as possible; Provide development allocation for New Villages in proportion to population; Allocate adequate parcels of land for rural and New Village farmers. 11. Housing for All There must be more positive action taken to realise the objective of housing for all in order to solve the urgent problem of housing for the middle and lower income groups: Ensure that state Governments allocate more free land for the construction of low and medium-cost public housing; Ensure fair allocation of low-cost housing and prevent those who do not qualify from benefiting from it; Implement a "rent-then-purchase" system whereby the poor and less well-off can have the opportunity to own their own houses. 12. Protect Women's Rights Women's rights must be addressed in both the public and private sectors: Endorse the "Women's Agenda 1999" by Malaysian women's NGOs; Upgrade the function of Government agencies dealing with women's affairs; Eliminate sexism and all forms of discrimination against women in Malaysian society; Impose heavier sentences on those who use violence against women and children; Urge the public and private sectors to provide child-care facilities for working women. 13. A Fair Media The Malaysian media must be independent and fair and be allowed to operate without Government interference: Establish an Independent Broadcasting Authority which is fair to all parties; Abolish the regulations in respect to the annual renewal of publishing permit (KDN); Encourage the setting up of more private broadcasting media; Increase the time allocation for news broadcast in Mandarin. 14. Restore Confidence in the Police Force In recent years, the way in which the Malaysian police have conducted themselves has been a cause for concern and could well have shaken the confidence of the public in the police force: Establish independent commissions of enquiry to investigate all cases of police abuse of power and brutality under police detention, release these reports for public scrutiny and punish those police personnel found to have abused their power; Improve the quality of the police force through salary adjustment and more stringent recruitment procedures to ensure a more responsible, humane and just police force. 15. Upgrade Social Services Everyone has the right to live and die with dignity and to social protection against unemployment, sickness, disability, old age, death or other circumstances beyond a person's control: Cater to the special needs of women, children, senior citizens and the disabled; Provide more recreational facilities for the youth to guide them into positive and healthy lifestyles; Increase fund allocation to the medical and health sector, especially for disease prevention; Increase awareness in basic health care and healthy living. 16. Respect the Rights of Workers Workers should have the right to fair working conditions and a safe, humane and democratic working environment in line with international labour standards: Recognise the rights of electronics workers to form their own national electronics union; Legislate a progressive guaranteed minimum wage acceptable to all workers, including estate working. 17. Provide for Our Indigenous Peoples Indigenous peoples are increasingly marginalised and fall victim to development projects: Confirm the right of the Orang Asli and other indigenours peoples to their Native Communal lands so that they can control their own land and resources and choose their own way of life. Initiated by the following national Chinese Organisations: United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong) United Chinese School Teachers Association of Malaysia (Jiao Zong) United Chinese School Alumni Association of Malaysia Nanyang University Alumni Association of Malaya Taiwan Graduates Alumni Association of Malaysia Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall Federation of Guangdong Associations of Malaysia Federation of Guangxi Associations of Malaysia Federation of Sanjiang Associations of Malaysia Federation of Fuzhou Associations of Malaysia Huazi Research Centre Malaysian And endorsed by 1848 Malaysian Chinese organisation as at 16th August 1999. (This English translation was approved by the Working Committee on 16th September 1999) In year 2000, two more Chinese organisations have joined the Suqiu Committee, other than the above 11 organisations, these two organisations are: Negeri Sembilan Chinese Assembly Hall Federation of Hokkien Associations of Malaysia Before the 1999 Election, Suqiu has been endorsed by 2095 Malaysian Chinese organisations.