Question by Mr.Lim Kit Siang for the session of Parliament

Press Statement by DAP Secretary-General and Member of Parliament for Bandar Melaka, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, 8th December 1971

The DAP member of Parliament for Bandar Melaka, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, has submitted 100 questions, 29 for oral and 71 for written answers, for the forthcoming session of Parliament beginning on 8th December, 1971

His 29 oral questions are as follows:

1. To ask the Prime Minister to state the conditions on which the Malaysian government will establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China.

2. To ask the Prime Minister whether the government would set up a special government department or agency entrusted with the task of formulating and implementing policies and programmes to promote the economic growth and development of the new villages in the country and transform the life of 750,000 new villagers.

3. To ask the Prime Minister to give reasons for each disqualification o the 10 independent candidates who filed nomination papers for the Sabah State General Elections on Oct. 5, this year, and to state whether there had been any undemocratic practice which denied the people of Sabah the democratic right to express their free political choice at the Sabah State General Elections.

4. To ask the Prime Minister to give the response and reaction of (i) the People’s Republic of China; (ii) the U. S. S. R (iii) the United States of America; and (iv) the Republic of Indonesia to the Malaysian government’s proposal for the neutralization of South East Asia.

5. To ask the Minister of Health whether the government would consider granting legal status to qualified Chinese physicians, with rights such as to register for practice as a medical officer, sign medical and death certificates, use certain instruments necessary for treatment and to obtain and prescribe any medicine they feel necessary.

6. To ask the Minister of Labour what action he has taken against the Killinghall Tin Mine in Puchong for its anti-labour and anti-social action in retrenching 147 permanent workers on Oct. 1, this year, and replacing them with cheap contract labour.

7. To ask the Minister of Foreign Affairs to give the government’s attitude to the 20-year Russo-Indian Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Defence with regard to the security of the Indian Ocean, and whether he considers such a treaty would advance or hinder the proposal for the neutralisation of South East Asia.

8. To ask the Minister of Education whether the government has banned the proposed Merdeka University project; if so; to give reasons for the ban; and if not, to state whether he would receive a delegation from the sponsors of the project to discuss the matter.

9. To ask the Minister of Works, Posts and Telecommunications whether the government would fully implement the recommendations of the 1965 Ungku Aziz Arbitration Board for postal workers, particularly in view of the fact that the postal department made a profit of $8 million last year.

10. To ask the Minister of Foreign Affairs whether the government had protested or made any representations to President Yahya Khan of Pakistan over the secret military trial of Mujibur Rahman, and whether Malaysian government had added its voice to the international call for the immediate unconditional release from detention of Mujib Rahman and a political settlement to the problem of Bangla Desh.

11. To ask the Minister of Education whether he could give a categorical assurance that the government would never convert the National-type (Chinese) primary schools and the National-type (Tamil) primary schools into national primary schools.

12. To ask the Prime Minister whether there is a deadline, and if so when, for the completion of the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Quasi-Government Authorities’ salary scales and conditions of service, and whether he could give an assurance that the Report would be acted on by the government with despatch and not be met with protracted delay as is the case with the government’s handling of its other commission of inquiry reports.

13. To ask the Prime Minister whether in his recent trip to the United Nations and other foreign countries, he bought, or had committed to buy on behalf of the government, defence hardware and aircraft, and if so, to give a report together with details of the defence hardware, the countries concerned, and the costs involved.

14. To ask the Minister of Education whether his Ministry proposes to restore the Chinese Senior Middle Three Examination for students in Chinese secondary schools.

15. To ask the Minister of Labour to give the number of workers who were retrenched from (i) rubber estates (ii) rubber processing factories for each year since 1960, ending with the first 10 months of 1971, giving a breakdown of such retrenched workers on a racial basis.

16. To ask to Minister of Home Affairs to give figures to date of:

(i) the number of citizenship certificates under Article 30 submitted for verification;

(ii) the number of such certificates verified valid;

(iii) the number invalidated;

(iv) out of the number of certificates invalidated the number who re-applied for citizenship under the appropriate article of the Constitution based on their qualifications;

(v) the number of these re-applications who have been granted citizenship

(vi) the number of these re-applications whose re-applications have been rejected.

17. To ask the Minister of Finance to give the number of employees, and the amount of housing loans, which the government has made out to its employee giving separate figures for (i) Division One; (ii) Division Two; (iii) Division Three; (iv) Division Four and I.M.G. employees.

18. To ask the Minister of Home Affairs to give figures of the number of detainees in the Pulau Jerajak who had served their two-year detention period on the penal isle who had been (a) released without conditions (b) released but under R. R.; (c) their detention of Pulau Jerajak extended by another two years; giving a breakdown according to States, and races.

19. To ask the Minister of Home Affairs whether the government would lift restrictions on Malaysians to travel and visit China, as a step to promote people-to-people goodwill to pave for closer understanding between the two countries.

20. To ask the Minister of Commerce and Industry to justify the government’s approval of the five-cents increase for a tin of condensed milk; whether his Ministry had taken into consideration the interests of the consumers.

21. To ask the Minister of Health (a) whether he has caused investigations to be made into the death of one Madam Chong Lan Jin in the Malacca General Hospital on Sept. 16; (b) whether he is aware of the following facts of the case of Madam Chong Lan Jin:-

In the morning of Sept. 14, 1971, Madam Chong Lan Jin, 27, housewife, was taken by her rubber-tapper husband to the Batang Melaka Salvation Army clinic as she was seriously ill;

After treating Madam Chong, the Salvation army nurse told the rubber-tapper husband that his wife is seriously ill and should be taken to Malacca General Hospital immediately for hospitalisation. The nurse also wrote a letter of recommendation for hospitalisation.

The rubber tapper husband, Mr. Foo Kiang, immediately hired a taxi and rushed his wife from the Batang Melaka Salvation Army clinic to Malacca General Hospital about 30 miles away.

On arrival at the Malacca General Hospital at about 9.45 a.m. Madam Chong was refused hospitalisation on the grounds that she was not seriously ill, and despite the Salvation Army clinic’s letter of recommendation.

Mr. Foo Kiang had to take his wife back to Batang Melaka and again contacted the Salvation Army nurse. It was only after the Salvation Army nurse accompanied the sick Madam Chong down to Malacca General Hospital in the evening that Madam Hong was admitted into the hospital.

Madam Chong, who was pregnant, gave birth to a baby boy on Sept. 16 at 2 a.m. and she died at 10 p.m. the same night. The baby boy also died.

(c) whether he could inform the House whether Madam Chong’s death was in anyway contributed by the refusal on the part of the hospital authorities to hospitalise Madam Chong on the morning of Sept. 14, causing her to rush back to Batang Melaka and back again when in a state of grave illness; (d) to explain why the hospital refused to admit a patient when there was a letter of recommendation for hospitalisation by the Salvation Army clinic.

22. To ask the Minister of Health to state how much allocation has been made by the Ministry of Health for the State of Malacca under the Second Malaysia Plan, and to give details of these allocations.

23. To ask the Minister of Works, Posts and Telecommunications whether the government will build a trunk road to connect Niyor with Kluang in Johore under the Second Malaysia Plan; and if so, to give details as to cost and date of start of work and completion.

24. To ask the Minister of Transport whether there is any plan under the Second Malaysia Plan to build a port in Malacca, and if so, to give details.

25. To ask the Minister of Labour and Manpower to state:

(i) the number of certified welders in Malaysia;

(ii) whether he agree that the number of certified welders is too low for the country’s industrial needs and requirements;

(iii) what steps is being taken by the Ministry to increase the number of certified welders under the Second Malaysia Plan, giving yearly targets;

(iv) whether his Ministry would introduce different grades of welders so that companies producing cylinderical shell can have welders who pass only the flat position welding.

(v) whether there is any move to include CO2 welding in the training programme for students in the Trade Schools and in Industrial Training Institutes.

26. To ask the Minister of Transport whether:

(i) whether he is aware that there are two Submerged Arc Welding machines worth thousands of dollars not put to use and kept as monuments;

(ii) to state whether there are any plan to recover worn-out locomotive and wagon wheels worth thousands of dollars a year by using the two Submerged Welding machines, instead of discarding these wheels.

27. To ask the Minister of Transport whether he is aware of the inordinate delay at the R.I.M.V. Office in issuing haulage permits for new lorries, and to state what action is being taken to remedy this deplorable state of affairs which is creating considerable frustration among investors who find it difficult to get vehicles to market their products.

28. To ask the Prime Minister to state

(i) whether Mr. Anthony Short has completed his book on the official history of the First Melayu Emergency;

(ii) whether it is true that the Government is withholding release of Mr. Short’s book because there were certain passages which the Government took offence; and

(iii) to state the total expenses to the government in commissioning the book, and the date when Mr. Short was first commissioned.

29. To ask the Minister of Commerce and Industry to state what the FIDA has decided to enter into industrial development directly by developing and managing industrial estates itself, and if so, to give details.