King's ultimatum on national language a blow to DAP marketing plan, says prominent whistleblower

The recent language ultimatum from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong has dealt a blow to DAP's longstanding "marketing plan" which delivered it federal power by promising Chinese voters unconditional recognition of the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC), said prominent whistleblower Albert Tei, as he ramps up attack on the party that is dominating Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's ruling coalition.

Tei said the Agong's speech on Monday made it clear that any unconditional recognition of the UEC – the Mandarin-language pre-university examination for independent Chinese secondary schools – was out of the question.

"The current situation proves that DAP has been deceiving the Chinese community for several decades by exploiting sentiment over unconditional UEC recognition. What excuse will DAP use to calm the emotions of the Chinese who have been deceived by them for so long?" said Tei, the man behind the recent shocking exposé of corruption in the Prime Minister's Office and bribes involving more than a dozen Sabah ruling politicians, in a new video on his recently createdsocial media channel, Reformati.

"I also want to learn from DAP leaders how to defuse this bomb and what kind of theatrics DAP leaders will present to the community to control the situation."

During his speech at the opening of the new parliamentary session, Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar said recognition of any other education system must be on the condition that Bahasa Melayu – which is not the medium of UEC – be accepted as the main language in line with the national education policy.

"If there are those who do not accept BM, it is better that they don't live in Malaysia," said the ruler.

UEC has been a hot-button issue at the heart of Malaysia's divisive schooling system.

Anwar's Pakatan Harapan (PH) has made recognition of UEC for entry into Malaysia's public universities and civil service part of its general election campaigns.

In 2020, DAP leader Nga Kor Ming warned that the party would not hesitate to leave the PH administration led by then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad if it refused to recognise the UEC.

"We have even reached a consensus – if the UEC is not recognised, DAP will go even to the extent of not hesitating to withdraw itself from the government.

"It's okay not to be in government. This is our basic principle that we will continue to uphold," he reportedly told Chinese-language Oriental Daily in an interview.

In 2022, PH pledged to continue efforts to recognise the examination by including a condition that applicants should possess at least a credit in their SPM Bahasa Melayu paper.

"To fulfil this objective, the UEC will be accepted similarly to the existing general requirements for enrolment in public higher education institutions," stated the manifesto.

Response to refusal to use Malay as medium

The UEC was established more than 50 years ago as an equivalent to STPM and A-levels by Dong Zong, the powerful committee representing independent Chinese secondary schools nationwide.

The examination was a response to their rejection of Bahasa Melayu as the main medium, as required by a new education policy that came into effect in 1962.

Concerns largely revolve around the emphasis on developing a Malaysian identity, including command of the Malay language and an understanding of patriotism and narratives of the country's history. Critics have also raised the issue of assimilation faced by school leavers from Chinese independent schools with UEC certificates.

Tei said DAP has for decades exploited sentiments over UEC recognition, culminating in their electoral successes with Chinese voters, at the expense of MCA and Gerakan - once the community's voice in government.

"In short, DAP leaders are hypocrites. Their scheme is to make sweet promises. As long as they can lie, they will continue to lie for their survival," said Tei.

A plea to Agong on corruption

Meanwhile, Tei said the king's remarks on the fight against corruption were a slap in the face for DAP, which has made the issue of corruption a vote bait at every general election.

He referred to the recent appointment of at least two corruption-tainted Sabah politicians to lucrative positions in state-controlled entities.

"These two corrupt individuals are traitors to the country, yet they are elevated to high positions. Meantime, the person who appointed them, Chief Minister Hajiji Noor, is the father of traitors to our nation," he added.

Hajiji, an ally of Anwar, has been implicated in an explosive bribery scandal involving his Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) state assemblymen, which Tei exposed through a series of video clips in which they discussed bribes ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of ringgit in exchange for mineral mining licences.

The assemblymen included Yusof Yacob and Shahelmey Yahya, who were appointed as chairman of Sabah Development Bhd and Sabah Oil and Gas Development Corporation, respectively.

Tei had previously sought Anwar's help to protect him as a whistleblower so that he could lodge a formal complaint with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), a request the prime minister turned down.

Last November, a new clip released by Tei showed a woman linked to Anwar's then political secretary, Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin, claiming that the prime minister himself was the mastermind behind the secretly recorded videos of the Sabah assemblymen, and that the matter was known to MACC chief Azam Baki.

Tei said the Sabah recordings were originally intended as part of his efforts to recover money he had given to the GRS politicians, and that he had sought the prime minister's help to speak to the coalition's chairman, Hajiji.

Tei said that in the course of doing so, he had spent more than RM600,000 on Shamsul, only to find that nothing was done to help him recover his money.