Lim Kit Siang to ask in Parliament whether the Government intends to nationalise foreign firms.

Lim Kit Siang to ask in Parliament whether the Government intends to nationalise foreign firms.

DAP Member of Parliament, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, will ask in Parliament next week whether the Government would nationalise foreign companies and industries under the Second Malaysia Plan to give bumiputras greater share of the commercial and industrial activities in the country.

The following are some of the questions which he has directed at the Prime Minister and his other colleagues:

1. To ask the Prime Minister, in view of the Government’s declared policy-target that within 20 years, Malays and another indigenous people will manage and own at least 30% of the total commercial and industrial activities and in view of the fact that as of 1969, of the total $4,678 million share capital, 62.1% was accounted for by foreign interests compared with 22.8% by Chinese, 1.5% by Malays and 0.9% by Indians, to state
(i) what action the Government is taking within the Second Malaysia Plan to reduce the foreign dominance in the share capital of Malaysia;
(ii) whether it is a policy target of the Government by the end of the Second Malaysia Plan in 1975 to reduce the foreign holding of 62.1% of total share capital, and if so, approximately by how much?
(iii) Whether the government would ever consider expropriating or nationalising foreign companies if the government policies do not succeed in reducing the foreign dominance in Malaysian industrial and commercial activities.

2. To ask the Prime Minister
(i) whether there is any decision or plan to introduce automatic registration of voters and compulsory voting in Malaysia, to ensure a more efficacious working of the democratic process;
(ii) to give the period of the registration of voters exercise for this year;
(iii) whether the Elections Commission have been given sufficient funds to engage enough registration officials and print registration forms for the campaign to avoid the shocking incompetence and inefficiency prevalent during last year’s voters’ registration exercise;
(iv) whether opposition parties would be given full facilities and access to the registration forms to assist in the registration exercise so that greater meaning and content would be given to the elections and democratic machinery and process in Malaysia.

3. To ask the Prime Minister whether
(i) the Government is aware of the undesirability of press monopoly in any social or nation;
(ii) what steps the government is taking to break the virtual press monopoly of the Straits Times over the English-language press media, which allows it to distort the information being channeled to English-speaking readers in Malaysia.

4. To ask the Minister of Home Affairs to give the reasons for
(i) the continued detention of State Assemblyman Dzulkifli Ismail;
(ii) peasant leader Hamid Tuah; and to state when they will be returned to freedom.

5. To ask the Minister of Local Government to give a report of the state of local government in West Malaysia, the extent of the implementation of the Athi Nahappan Royal Commission Report, and the government’s plans and intention on the subject.

6. To ask the Minister of Home Affairs
(i) to give the detailed reasons for the withdrawal of citizenship from C.C.Yoong, who is in detention under the Internal Security Act in Muar detention camp, and
(ii) to state whether it is true that banishment proceedings is being taken against him; and
(iii) whether the government will give him an open public trial to answer the allegations the government has preferred against him.

7. To ask the Minister of Defence to state
(i) the number of applicants from Malaysian youths to join the RMAF since 1969
(ii) the number of applicants recruited into the RMAF since 1969;
(iii) the number of applicants who were rejected because although they have the requisite qualifications as science and mathematic standards required in M.C.E., they lack a pass in Bahasa Malaysia subject in M.C.E., giving figures for different countries of origin.

8. To ask the Minister of Defence to give the following particulars with regards to the ammunition plant in Batu Arang:
(i) the percentage of foreign participation in the project and the identity of such foreign participation;
(ii) the number of workers employed, giving a racial breakdown;
(iii) whether any expatriates employed, if so, how many, giving their names, countries of origin, status, remuneration, what steps are being taken to Malaysianise their positions; and
(iv) what categories of ammunition are being produced by the ammunition plant.