By Karen Bong
KUCHING, Jan 30: DAP Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen said the party will do its best to fulfill its manifesto within the PH coalition’s five-year term.
“Not only on UEC (Unified Examination Certificate) but also other aspects,” he told a press conference after addressing the issue of shortage of face masks in Malaysia including Sarawak and Sabah at the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Sarawak office here today.
He was responding to Perak Democratic Action Party (DAP) chief, who is also the Dewan Rakyat Deputy Speaker, Nga Kor Ming’s remarks that the party is ready to quit the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government, which has been in power for 20 months, for its failure to recognise the UEC for Chinese schools.
Nga told Chinese paper Oriental Daily yesterday: “We reached a consensus that DAP will withdraw from the government if UEC is not recognised.
“It doesn’t matter if we are no longer part of the ruling government. This is the principle we will uphold.”
Nga later told news portal Free Malaysian Today (FMT) that his remarks were taken out of context in an hour-long interview with the Chinese-language newspaper about parliamentary reforms.
Chong, who is also Deputy Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister, then highlighted that the PH government has in less than two years improved Malaysia’s ranking in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2019.
“For the past ten years, this is the best position Malaysia is seeing. All these years, we acknowledged the fact that corruption is the No. 1 enemy of the country and the Pakatan government has improved the perception tremendously,” he said.
On Jan 23, Transparency International Malaysia revealed that Malaysia’s ranking in the CPI 2019 jumped 10 places to 51 compared to the previous years.
Malaysia also scored 53 points, compared to 47 points in the 2018 index when it was ranked 61 out of 180 countries surveyed. A higher score indicates better public perception.
“This is the best in terms of transparency and the combat against corruption. This is one of the major achievements of the PH government in terms of our manifesto promise,” Chong added.
As demonstrated in the result, Chong emphasised that the PH government will continue to work hard to improve Malaysia’s standing in the CPI. — DayakDaily
