The proposal that individuals wanting to become elected representatives be required to have at least a credit in Bahasa Malaysia in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination is impractical, unnecessary and unacceptable.
In fact, it should not have been given even any serious thought at all for two basic reasons; firstly, there is no such similar academic requirement in the world’s vibrant democracies and secondly, as pointed out by Sarawak PKR vice chairman See Chee How, nine members of the Sarawak state cabinet sat for the Malay-language paper in their Senior Cambridge Examination (SCE) and the Higher School Certificate (HSC), which are equivalent to the SPM Form Five and STPM Form Six public examinations respectively.
If there was such a SPM Bahasa Malaysia credit requirement in the previous Sarawak state election, many Sarawak politicians including the present Sarawak Chief Minister would have been ineligible to contest in the election.
If such a proposal is adopted, many more potential east and West Malaysian candidates who have the passion and ability to serve the nation and the people will be disqualified from contesting in future elections as there will be many who either do not have credit in SPM Bahasa Malayisa or did not sit for SPM.
I want to ask Abdul Aziz how often has he witnessed parliamentary or state assembly proceedings? Is Bahasa Malaysia proficiency a problem?
Even though there are a few elected representatives who are not very fluent in Bahasa Malaysia and may not once in a while pronounce some words correctly, there has been no problem as far as delivery of their message goes.
Election Commission should not waste its time on such an unnecessary and unacceptable suggestion and should instead leave it to the voters to decide who they want to choose as their representatives and respect their criteria in choosing their representatives.
Other than the DAP which has made various proposals for electoral reforms in the past, Bersih 2.0 has also made proposals which were widely supported. And the report by Parliamentary Select Committee on electoral reforms which contained 2 recommendations was also passed by Parliament in 2012.
Although the nation has seen thirteen general elections, so many long standing electoral flaws and defects have not been addressed. Abdul Aziz should therefore focus on the much needed reforms and make Malaysian elections free, fair and clean.
Teresa Kok