1.
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Promote
National Unity
National unity must be
based on the interests of all Malaysian irrespective of race. Unity and
solidarity can only be forged in an environment in which there is equality
and non-discrimination:
- Enact a Race Relations Act to
combat racism, racialism and race discrimination and institute a Race
Relations Commision;
- Affirmative action should be
based on the protection and enhancement of the status of the weaker
sectors and not on race, social background and religious belief;
- Take steps to abolish in all
aspects, the "bumiputera / non-bumiputera" distinction.
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2.
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Advance
Democracy
Democracy is more than
the ritual casting of a ballot once every five years -- there must be
democracy at all levels of government in order that we can realise
parliamentary democracy and ensure free and fair elections:
- Delineate constituencies
based on the principle of "one person one vote" -- the
discrepancy in the number of voters in different constituencies should
not exceed 15% as practised at the time of Independence, to ensure fair
representation in all constituencies;
- Reintroduce elected local
governments;
- Senators must be elected.
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3.
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Uphold
Human Rights and Justice
Human rights must be
upheld for the political, social, cultural and economic benefit of all
peoples and for justice, peace and freedom in our country:
- Ratify all the international
convenants and United Nations Conventions;
- Extend the powers of the
Malaysian Human Rights Commission to ensure that it is independent and
representative;
- Ensure that the judiciary and
the office of the Attorney-Genral are independent;
- Repeal the long-existing
Internal Security Act in line with social development;
- Enact a Freedom of
Information Act;
- Amend the Trade Union Act,
the Sedition Act, the Printing Presses and Publications Act, the Police
Act, the Universities and University Colleges Act to bring them into
line with human rights standards;
- Protect and guarantee the freedom
of speech, assembly and association.
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4.
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Curb
Corruption
Corruption is one of the
biggest obstacles to the nation's deveopment. It has not only deprived the
people of benefits but has adversely affected the functioning of the
government administration and erodes accountability. Corruption must be
eradicated at all levels of the government and civil service:
- Reconstitute the
Anti-Corruption Agency so that it is independent and accountable to
Parliament;
- Enact a law whereby all
elected representatives and senior civil servants must publicly declare
their assets.
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5.
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A
Fair and Equitable Economic Policy
It is time to review the
country's economic policy and overcome the weaknesses that have been exposed
during the recent financial crisis. Businesses must be allowed the
opportunity to compete on a fair basis regardless of race, and contracts and
shares must not be given out through nepotism, cronyism and corruption. It is
clear that modernisation and development of the small & medium industries
have been grossly neglected while the Government has focussed on the business
and industrial development of the Bumiputeras during the last thirty years.
The Government has also been negligent in the handling of the plight of pig
rearers and victims of the epidemic during the recent crisis in the
pig-rearing industry:
- Promote the development and
modernisation of small and medium industries in the country;
- Formulate and implement a
sustainable agricultural policy;
- Provide fair and adequate
support to all sectors including pig-farming industry;
- Distribute land fairly and
justly to farmers of all ethnic communities;
- Abolish the quota system
based on "race" and replace it with a means-tested sliding
scale;
- Ensure that the Malaysian
workers' EPF and other public funds are adequately represented by
workers' organisations to guarantee proper management of the funds.
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6.
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Review
the Privatisation Policy
The objective of
privatising our public utilities is to improve efficiency and alleviate the
economic burden on the public sector. Although certain privatised utilities
have provided more convenience to the people and enhanced economic growth,
the lack of transparency in their operation has given rise to private
monopolies. This has added to the burden on the people, led to the practice
of cronyism and placed obstacles in the way of further economic development:
- Focus on the public interest
in all privatisation exercises;
- Practice open tendering for
all privatisation contracts;
- Set up a public Utilities
Commission to oversee and appraise privated utilities so as to protect
the public interest.
- Roll back the privatisation
of the health service to enable the Malaysian public, especially the
lower income groups to enjoy an affordable and efficient public health
service;
- Enact anti-monopoly
legislation to prevent monopoly of privatised services;
- Review the privatised
sewerage services to alleviate the burden on consumers;
- Disallow the privatisation
and imposition of toll on upgraded roads and roads within the city
limits.
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7.
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An
Enlightened, Liberal and Progressive Education Policy
To face the challenges of
the next century, we must review the entire Malaysian education system both
in relation to human potential, human resource demands as well as creativity,
initiative and critical faculties of our students. The Chinese organisations
are particularly concerned that the 1996 Education Act does not give fair
treatment to the mother tongue education of the Chinese, Tamil and other
ethnic minorities in our country. Chinese and Tamil primary schools are today
in crisis because they face inadequate funding, classrooms and teachers:
- Amend the Education Act 1996
to reflect the national education policy as originally stated in the
Education Ordinance 1957 ensuring the use, teaching and development of
the mother tongue of all Malaysian ethnic communities;
- Increase the number of
Chinese and Tamil schools especially in residential areas where there is
a demand for those schools so as not to deprive these pupils of their
mother tongue education;
- Solve to the long-existing
crisis of teacher-shortage in the Chinese and Tamil schools;
- Revoke the plan for
"Vision Schools" and other measures to appoint non-Mandarin
speaking teachers to high positions in Chinese primary schools in order
to maintain the character of these schools;
- Ensure fair and adequate
financial allocation for teacher training, curriculum development,
textbooks, infrastructure and hardware to all language streams and
education bodies involved in developing mother tongue education;
- Implement formal educational
programmers, train teachers, design curricula and provide teaching
materials for the respective mother tongue education systems in
Malaysia;
- Make available compulsory
Pupils' Own Language (POL) classes within the normal school curriculum
as long as there are five pupils of any ethnic community in any school;
- Increase the expenditure
allocation for education;
- Improve the salaries and
conditions of teachers;
- Introduce a system of student
grants and loans for all, irrespective of ethnicity, based on a
means-tested sliding scale;
- Recognise the Unified
Examination Certificate of the Malaysian Independent Chinese Secondary
Schools;
- Allow more additional
independence Chinese Secondary School to be establish and subsidise
their development;
- Build more primary shools,
secondary schools, colleges and universities in line with our country's
population growth;
- Recognise the degrees
conferred by accredited educational institutions including the former
Nanyang University and universities of China, Taiwan and other
non-English language universities;
- Relinquish the racial-based
quota system for university admission.
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8.
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Let
Our Multi-Ethnic Cultures Flourish
Malaysia is a
multi-cultural society. The existing National Cultural Policy of the
Government is inclined towards mono-cultural, hindering the flourishing of
our country's myriad cultures. The formulation of a cultural policy based on
the pluralistic nature of our country is crucial to remedying this situation:
- Institute a more liberal and
diversified arts and cultural policy;
- Provide arts support grants
and promote cultural activities of all Malaysian ethnic groups;
- Statutory authorities at all
levels must to encourage multi-culturalism;
- Make available national
artistic and literacy awards and scholarships to all Malaysians
regardless of race and language;
- Ensure fair representation of
all the various Malaysian cultures in official cultural bodies and the
media;
- Encourage and facilitate
international cultural exchange;
- Promote and educate
Malaysians to respect the religions of the different peoples in the country
and strengthen the exchange between the various religious bodies in the
country.
- All Malaysia religions should
receive fair treatment in their propagation, development and official
financial support as well as access to the media.
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9.
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Protect
the Malaysian Environment
All development projects
which impinge on highlands, forests, wetlands, burial gounds and other
heritage sites must be subject to more stringent control. Laws and standards
of environment protection in Malaysia need to be enforced strictly:
- Ensure that dam projects do
not damage the environment;
- Impose strict energy and
water conservation measures;
- Regazette all previously
gazetted forest and wildlife reserves;
- Strictly enforce the existing
forestry and environmental protection laws to prevent unscrupulous
logging activities;
- Impose tax on energy
consumption and carbon gas and other harmful emissions;
- Beautify burial grounds and
ensure that no burial ground has to give away to development purposes;
- Offer incentives to industries
relating to solar-energy and other sustainable energy sources.
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10.
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Develop
and Modernise New Villages
Fifty years after their
establishment, the 452 New Villages in the country where some 1.5 million
Chinese Malaysians inhabit, are still excluded from the mainstream of the
national economic development plans. Their basic infrastructure still need
improvement and, many do not have their land titles or have these renewed:
- Ensure that land titles of
all New Villagers are given to them as soon as possible;
- Finalise a development plan
for the New Villages as soon as possible;
- Provide development
allocation for New Villages in proportion to population;
- Allocate adequate parcels of
land for rural and New Village farmers.
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11.
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Housing
for All
There must be more
positive action taken to realise the objective of housing for all in order to
solve the urgent problem of housing for the middle and lower income groups:
- Ensure that state Governments
allocate more free land for the construction of low and medium-cost
public housing;
- Ensure fair allocation of
low-cost housing and prevent those who do not qualify from benefiting
from it;
- Implement a
"rent-then-purchase" system whereby the poor and less well-off
can have the opportunity to own their own houses.
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12.
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Protect
Women's Rights
Women's rights must be
addressed in both the public and private sectors:
- Endorse the "Women's
Agenda 1999" by Malaysian women's NGOs;
- Upgrade the function of
Government agencies dealing with women's affairs;
- Eliminate sexism and all
forms of discrimination against women in Malaysian society;
- Impose heavier sentences on
those who use violence against women and children;
- Urge the public and private
sectors to provide child-care facilities for working women.
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13.
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A
Fair Media
The Malaysian media must
be independent and fair and be allowed to operate without Government
interference:
- Establish an Independent
Broadcasting Authority which is fair to all parties;
- Abolish the regulations in
respect to the annual renewal of publishing permit (KDN);
- Encourage the setting up of
more private broadcasting media;
- Increase the time allocation for
news broadcast in Mandarin.
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14.
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Restore
Confidence in the Police Force
In recent years, the way
in which the Malaysian police have conducted themselves has been a cause for
concern and could well have shaken the confidence of the public in the police
force:
- Establish independent
commissions of enquiry to investigate all cases of police abuse of power
and brutality under police detention, release these reports for public
scrutiny and punish those police personnel found to have abused their
power;
- Improve the quality of the
police force through salary adjustment and more stringent recruitment
procedures to ensure a more responsible, humane and just police force.
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15.
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Upgrade
Social Services
Everyone has the right to
live and die with dignity and to social protection against unemployment,
sickness, disability, old age, death or other circumstances beyond a person's
control:
- Cater to the special needs of
women, children, senior citizens and the disabled;
- Provide more recreational
facilities for the youth to guide them into positive and healthy
lifestyles;
- Increase fund allocation to
the medical and health sector, especially for disease prevention;
- Increase awareness in basic
health care and healthy living.
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16.
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Respect
the Rights of Workers
Workers should have the
right to fair working conditions and a safe, humane and democratic working
environment in line with international labour standards:
- Recognise the rights of
electronics workers to form their own national electronics union;
- Legislate a progressive
guaranteed minimum wage acceptable to all workers, including estate
working.
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17.
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Provide
for Our Indigenous Peoples
Indigenous peoples are
increasingly marginalised and fall victim to development projects:
- Confirm the right of the
Orang Asli and other indigenours peoples to their Native Communal lands
so that they can control their own land and resources and choose their
own way of life.
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Initiated by the
following national Chinese Organisations:
- United Chinese School Committees Association of
Malaysia (Dong Zong)
- United Chinese School Teachers Association of
Malaysia (Jiao Zong)
- United Chinese School Alumni Association of
Malaysia
- Nanyang University Alumni Association of Malaya
- Taiwan Graduates Alumni Association of Malaysia
- Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall
- Federation of Guangdong Associations of
Malaysia
- Federation of Guangxi Associations of Malaysia
- Federation of Sanjiang Associations of Malaysia
- Federation of Fuzhou Associations of Malaysia
- Huazi Research Centre Malaysian
And endorsed by 1848 Malaysian
Chinese organisation as at 16th August 1999.
(This English translation was approved by
the Working Committee on 16th September 1999)
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In year 2000, two more
Chinese organisations have joined the Suqiu Committee, other than the above
11 organisations, these two organisations are:
- Negeri Sembilan Chinese Assembly Hall
- Federation of Hokkien Associations of
Malaysia
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Before
the 1999 Election, Suqiu has been endorsed by 2095 Malaysian Chinese
organisations.
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