23 Oct 2011
Civil Society Statement
We, the undersigned organizations, support the Justice for Lim Lian Geok Movement that seeks to redress the injustice done to Mr. Lim Lian Geok
Lim Lian Geok was the President of the United Chinese School Teachers Association of Malaya, more popularly referred to as Jiao Zong. (1954-1961) and the most revered Chinese educationist in the country. After he led Chinese education movement in opposition to the 1960 Rahman Talib Report that proposes, among others, the conversion of Chinese medium secondary schools to the English medium, he was notified in 1961 that his citizenship would be revoked. His citizenship was officially deprived on 23rd October. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the revocation of his citizenship.
The reasons stated in the notice of deprivation of his citizenship – deliberate misrepresentation and inversion of government education policy to incite disaffection against the Yang Di Pertuan Agong (YDPA) and the government; and emotional appeals of an extreme communal nature likely to cause violence — are totally unfounded. Throughout his active life, Lim has always struggled for equality among all linguistic streams by peaceful means. He was consistent and firm about the need to sustain multi-culturalism in our multi-ethnic society.