|
3rd July, 2012
KOTA KINABALU: Penampang MCA division chief, Senator Datuk Paul Kong Sing Chu, has urged the government to immediately approve the building of a new Chinese school in Penampang district.
He noted that Penampang has been the fastest growing district in Sabah over the past decade with housing estates mushrooming everywhere, especially within the Kepayan state constituency.
Penampang only had one Chinese Primary School, SJK (C) Yue Min and is unable to cater for the increasing Chinese population in the district, said Paul during the Penampang MCA division annual general meeting last weekend.
He also called on the government to address the perennial problems of shortage of Chinese teachers in the Chinese Primary Schools throughout the whole country which has become a hot issue lately and could affect the Barisan National (BN) performance in the coming 13th general election (GE 13).
Another issue was the recognition of the United Examination Certificate which is recognized by most renowned universities in the world, but not by our country, he stated.
“I hope that our government will use its wisdom and intelligence to resolve all these three hot issues before the 13 GE,” urged Paul.
He also urged the government to expedite the building of a new Health Clinic for Penampang which had been proposed in 2003.
“The proposed site has been acquired by the Federal government almost five years ago, but nothing has been done on the ground to realize our desire to improve the health care for the people of Penampang,” he said.
“Penampang is the only district in Sabah without a hospital. People have been asking me why it is so difficult especially the Health Minister is from MCA. I have no answer for that,” said Paul.
He also urged the local authorities to improve the malfunctioned basic facilities in the district and called on the police and local authorities to increase their surveillance in the area in order to reduce crimes activities especially these days where there are more ‘aliens’ in our neighbourhood.
Meanwhile, he urged the Sabah MCA members to adjust to the new political climate fast to keep themselves abreast with the change of time.
He said, the change is needed to face the tough coming 13th general election (GE 13) as it will be participated by more than 2 million young voters.
“We must adapt to the new political environment, adapt it fast, or else we will be ignored by this group of younger voters,” stressed Paul.
He told delegates that the GE 13 is a ‘do-or-die’ mission for MCA and the survival of Barisan National (BN) as the oppositions now has a stronger pact and it will be an uphill battle if all the opposition parties can achieve consensus to fight it out with BN ‘one-to-one’.
Although Sabah and Sarawak have been touted as BN’s fixed deposit state, Kong warned we should not be complacent with our situation here as the GE 13 will see the emergence of a new issue which will determine the outcome of its results.
“The issue is concerning the setting up of the much delayed Royal Commission of Inquiry on the illegal immigrants. The Federal cabinet had decided during its meeting on February 8, 2012 to set it up, but until today, more than four-and-a-half months nothing concrete have been announced,” lamented Kong.
This has caused a lot of anxiety and speculation on the sincerity of the government to really wanting to resolve the highly suspicious and sudden explosion of Sabah’s population from around 650,000 in 1970 to more than 3,120,000 in 2010, he remarked.
In the same year in 1970, Sarawak has almost 1 million people, but in 2010, it has only around 2,600,000, he said.
|
