He fought to preserve language

TUESDAY, MARCH 06, 2012 - 12:05
by Azril Annuar

Mr Lim Lian Geok 林连玉先生

PUTRAJAYA: Lim Lian Geok was a staunch believer in mother tongue-based education and fought against the implementation of the Barnes Report of Education 1951, which proposed to abolish Chinese and Tamil schools, causing strong opposition from the Chinese and Indian communities.

He was president and founding member of the Chinese Teachers Association of Kuala Lumpur (KLCSTA) at the time when he fought for the welfare of Chinese school teachers in the spirit of modern unionism.

Lim and his associates attended a pre-election negotiation session — dubbed the Malacca meeting — with the Alliance at the residence of MCA founder Tun Tan Cheng Lock on Jan 12, 1955.

He compromised by promising not to raise the official language issue before the election in exchange for a verbal guarantee from Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj that the 1952 Education Ordinance as an implementation of the Barnes Report would be abolished.

It helped the Alliance score a landslide victory by capturing 51 of the 52 seats in the general election. In return, the 1956 Razak Report incorporated all four existing streams of primary schools into the national education system.

However, Lim's strong opposition against the Rahman Talib 1960 Report and the 1961 Education Act caused his citizenship to be revoked and his teaching licence suspended.

The Act required all secondary schools to teach in English or Malay regardless of the school's ethnic teaching system.

Upon his passing, the nation's capital saw the biggest funeral procession for a Malaysian Chinese.

For the first time in its history, the KL Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall was transformed into a funeral parlour to honour his contribution to education.

He fought to preserve language-The Malay Mail

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