Tiong: Chong’s stand on Jawi issue ‘very overt, heavy-handed’
KUCHING: Bintulu MP Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing has slammed Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen regarding the latter’s stand in the Ministry of Education (MoE)’s introduction of Jawi script in vernacular schools.
Tiong, who is also Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) president, regards Chong’s defence of the policy as being ‘very overt and heavy-handed’.
“Though he ( Chong) is the Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, he has not been actively trying to help reduce prices (of goods) across the country; rather, (he has) busied himself with rationalising the MoE’s ‘fallacies’ over and over again.
“His incessant public endorsement of the Jawi policy is largely seen as ‘taking the hits’ for PH, which has justifiably come under immense public pressure over the past months,” Tiong said in a statement issued yesterday.
Last Thursday, Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg said Sarawak would not entertain ‘petty issues’ such as the teaching and learning of Jawi in schools.
In response to this, Chong during a press conference on Monday, said the Jawi issue was ‘neither small nor petty’, as it concerned many members of the Chinese community.
He said for Abang Johari to label it as ‘a petty issue’, showed that he was not ‘a chief minister for all races’.
In this regard, Tiong said with so many organisations condemning former minister of education Dr Maszlee Malik for introducing the Jawi subject and ‘other questionable decisions’, there was a widespread disagreement with Chong’s statement about PH’s performance.
“Chong is fond of saying that the PH-led government is more transparent, more democratic and more popular with the people. The amount of ‘firefighting’ that he has to perform to quell the everrising public anger is proving him wrong.
“The years leading to the change of government in 2018 had been calm and without any controversy such of those generated by the current batch of MoE leaders. The teachers and their school boards had been largely undisturbed, but not now with PH in the picture,” added Chong.