Source: Selangortimes

Writer: Gan Pei Ling
Published: Fri, 16 Dec 2011

KLANG: Klang Member of Parliament Charles Santiago has urged Putrajaya to heed the Chinese community’s long-standing plea to restore the late Lim Lian Geok’s citizenship.

“Lim didn’t do anything wrong; his citizenship shouldn’t have been revoked in 1961,” said Santiago, adding that Lim had merely opposed the then Alliance government’s education policy.

Santiago said Putrajaya should also enact an Education Equality Act to ensure equal treatment of national and vernacular schools.

The revered Chinese educationist had championed Malaysia’s diverse communities’ right to vernacular language education regardless of their ethnicity.

Lim, who died in 1985, had opposed the 1960 Rahman Talib Report and Education Act 1961, which required secondary schools to teach in Bahasa Malaysia or English in order to receive government aid.

Santiago (third left) with other supporters of the late Lim Lian Geok.

The government revoked Lim’s citizenship on the grounds that he was disloyal to the country.

However, civil society groups say that every citizen has the right to scrutinise and criticise any government policy and action.

In addition, Lim, who was originally from Fujian, China, and came to Malaya in 1927, had advocated for Chinese schools to add Malayan perspectives into their textbooks to instil patriotism among youths.

Lim also agreed that Malay was the appropriate common language for Malaysians, but felt that should not prevent other ethnic communities from preserving and developing their languages.

Civil society groups launched a campaign recently to restore Lim’s citizenship and to seek redress for the “injustice” done to Lim.

The Chinese community has also been organising an education festival every December since his death to commemorate Lim’s struggle.