KUALA LUMPUR: The Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia (Huazong) has welcomed and fully concurred with the statement of Datuk Nadzim Johan, President of the Muslim Consumers Association of Malaysia (PPIM), for suggesting that partial inclusion of the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) into the national education system will benefit Malaysia.
Its President, Tan Sri T.C Goh said Nadzim’s statement was appropriate and in sync with our multiracial setup. He hoped it would be accepted and supported by other organizations which share the same idea, especially those from the non Chinese communities.
He however underscored that, the said subject matter should be discussed based strictly on the basis of promoting a multiracial and multicultural education system, and not to be politicized or racialised by any quarters.
Goh who is also President of The Federation of Chinese Associations Sabah (FCAS) was responding to Nadzim’s statement published in the Malay language daily, Berita Harian, recently. Goh especially concurred with Nazdim’s remark that: “As Malaysians, we should be looking for similarities among us, instead of differences among us. What’s wrong with our children learning Mandarin?…the government should at least consider partially accepting UEC, especially for such subjects like language education, mathematics and science.”.
“What’s wrong with learning an additional language? It’s also okay to learn Arabic. After all, it’s knowledge for our children. Let’s stop dividing our nation further, and start searching for our similarities, and the similarity between UEC and SPM is education,” he argued.
He added that, if he’s given the power to make decisions, he would make it mandatory for students in the country to also learn Mandarin and Tamil, besides Malay and English.
He cited the internationally recognised International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGSCE) for example, where it is being offered by several Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (MRSM).
Goh also praised Nadzim for his open-mindedness, especially for saying that acceptance of the UEC should not be considered an act of forgetting or abandoning one’s race and religion, as education is supposed to educate a person to become literate and progrssive, and not the other way around.
He emphasized that, the perennial issue of UEC recognition should be properly addressed based on education and professional basis, and not to be racialised or politicized by any quarters.
Besides this, he also welcomed and supported the Transport Minister, Anthony Loke’s assurance that, the newly-minted ‘unity government’ will strive to preserve and further develop our existing multi-stream education system, including the Chinese independent schools. Loke assured this while speaking at the dinner hosted by Chong Hwa Independent High School , in Kuala Lumpur, recently.
