Kho Teck Wan
KUCHING: Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) Women chief Kho Teck Wan is disappointed with Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s statement that the government would consider interests of all races and issues concerning wealth distribution before recognising the United Examination Certificate (UEC).
Kho pointed out that the UEC recognition process used to involve the Minister of Education and the United Chinese School Committees’ Association of Malaysia and the discussions were centred on the requirement of having credit in Bahasa Malaysia and Malaysian History.
However, the current development in the recognition of the UEC issue seemed to have become more complex, Kho said in a statement.
Kho said the sentiment of all races and issues of unequal wealth distribution now needed to be considered first before recognising UEC.
She also said that a study now needed to be conducted to assess the UEC impact on unity and harmony among Malaysians and the possibility of compromising the status of Bahasa Malaysia as the national language needed to be considered.
On a personal note, Kho was glad that Sarawak made the decision to recognise UEC in 2015 despite the previous Barisan Nasional federal government’s failure to do so.
“After all, the certificate is well recognised by major universities around the world. The parties involved in recognising UEC should emulate Sarawak’s decision.”
In response to Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii’s statement that SUPP had been part of the ruling BN government for decades but had failed to resolve the UEC issue, Kho reminded Yii that recognising UEC was also Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) manifesto in the 14th General Election.
Instead of shifting the blame to the previous government, she said that Barisan Nasional was formed in 1973 and Dr Mahathir had led the BN government for 22 years out of the 45 years of BN rule.
“The current Prime Minister was also the Minister of Education from 1974 to 1978. PKR chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was the Minister of Education from 1986 to 1991, and current Home Affairs Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was the Minister of Education from 2009 to 2015,” she stressed.
She remarked that blaming the previous government for the failure in recognising UEC does not change the fact that the current Pakatan Harapan government has failed to deliver its promise in recognising UEC.
On a last note, Kho urged all parties involved in assessing UEC recognition to put aside their differences and seriously look into recognising UEC once and for all.