(The Star) - Pakatan Rakyat must tell the Chinese community specifically what it will do to develop Chinese education before it asks for their support in the coming general election, said MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek.
He said PKR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim should provide the details since DAP had named him as the potential prime minister if the coalition makes it to Putrajaya.
“Please tell us (MCA and Chinese community) how many Chinese primary schools and Chinese independent schools you plan to build, and also the upgrading of existing schools.
“Is the Pakatan government going to recognise the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) from the independent schools and what are its plans for the top UEC scorers?” he asked, pointing out that Pakatan had been evasive in its Buku Jingga on Chinese education.
Dr Chua, who is also Perak MCA chairman, was speaking to reporters after opening a joint annual general meeting of six MCA divisions in the Kinta Valley here on Friday.
Earlier, he presented MCA donations amounting to RM600,000 to Chinese independent schools in Perak.
The amount is a ringgit-for-ringgit pledge by Dr Chua for the RM600,000 raised by a charity show Journey to the West to help the nine independent schools in Perak last month.
The show was organised by the Perak government's Non-Islamic Affairs Department under executive councillor Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon.
Dr Chua said a sum of RM1.2mil was to help schools upgrade their facilities.
He noted that MCA had been going all out to help develop Chinese education since its inception in 1949 and this had nothing to do with demands from certain quarters.
For instance, he said MCA and the Perak government had put in place a project which provided the nine independent schools in the state an average of RM3.6mil a year for the next 30 years.
The state government gave a 1,011ha plot of land in Gunung Besout, Sungkai, for the nine schools to cultivate oil palm and use the profits to finance the schools development.
The schools which co-owned a company, Suwa Semangat Sdn Bhd, undertook the venture together with Sawit Langkap Sdn Bhd.
