Press Statement by DAP Secretary-General and Member of Parliament for Bandar Melaka, Mr. Lim Kit Siang on 24th November 1973
The following questions for Oral and Written Answers during the coming Dewan Rakyat session beginning on 26.11.1973, have been submitted by the Opposition Leader and DAP Member of Parliament for Bandar Melaka, Mr. Lim Kit Siang
QUESTIONS FOR ORAL ANSWERS
1. To ask the Prime Minister to state the causes for the second rice shortage and high prices crisis this year, which started in September; why the LPN failed to anticipate and prevent the recurrences of the second rice crisis; and what action Government has taken to ensure that there will not be another rice crisis in the next few months.
2. To ask the Finance Minister to state what action his Ministry has taken or proposes to take to prevent importers from making a 100% or even higher profits which he has admitted is one of the major causes of inflation.
3. To ask the Prime Minister to state:
a) the number of rice licences issued by the LPN in 1972, giving separate figures for different categories of licences;
b) the reasons for the LPN delays in renewing these licences this year;
c) the number of licences cancelled, giving reasons;
d) the number of new licences issued, and
e) whether Government or LPN had ever considered Government take-over of the rice trade and to state the Government’s policy on it.
4. To ask the Prime Minister to state what actions Government has taken to rectify the imbalance in the recruitment of nurses and assistant nurses by the Public Services Commission as they do not reflect the multi-racial population of the country.
5. To ask the Prime Minister to state:
a) the number of meetings that have been held between Malaysia and the People’s Republic of China on the establishment of diplomatic relations, giving details of dates, meeting places and the officials who represented each country;
b) the points of agreement which have been reached and those areas of disagreement still unresolved between both countries; and
c) when he expects diplomatic relations between both countries to be formalised.
6. To ask the Minister of Education to state:
a) whether there would be a further 10% reduction in the price of text-books next year as agreed to earlier between text-books publishers and the Ministry of Education; and
b) whether the Ministry of Education would consider introducing a national book-loan system to relieve poor students of the text-books burden by enabling them to borrow text-books at a nominal fee without having to spend large sums of money every year on new books.
7. To ask the Minister of Home Affairs to state:
a) the number of persons detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) on his appointment as Home Affairs Minister on 13th August, 1973;
b) the number of persons (i) released and (ii) detained from 13.8.1973 till 20.11.1973;
c) whether any person has been detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for rice smuggling, profiteering or hoarding as advocated by the Lembaga Padi and Beras Negara (LPN); and
d) whether he had or would cause a review of all cases of detainees with the purpose as to their release, especially those already serving long years of detentions; and the improvement of their detention conditions such as in terms of food, recreation facilities, reading materials etc.
8. To ask the Minister of Education whether he is aware of widespread dissatisfaction, and opposition, among the public especially among Chinese educational circles, to the Education (Amendment) Act 1972 which abolished the School Boards of Management which could act independently and to state whether the Ministry proposes repealing this Amendment Act to accede to the legitimate representations of the educational circles concerned.
9. To ask the Minister of Home Affairs to state:
a) the number of stateless Chinese in Malaysia who were born (i) in Malaysia and (ii) outside Malaysia;
b) the number of stateless Indians in Malaysia who were born (i) in Malaysia (ii) outside Malaysia;
c) the number of these stateless Chinese and Indians who have applied for Malaysian citizenship but their applications have been rejected.
10. To ask the Minister of Education whether he is aware of the anxiety, and unhappiness of many teachers awaiting efficiency bar crossing under the Aziz Scheme, as the inspectors of schools do not come for the examination until after the bar year and also the individual whims and fancies of inspectors in conducting their inspections; and whether he would cause an investigation into the whole exercise of conducting efficiency bar promotion examination so as to remove the teachers’ grievances so that they will be contented and productive teachers.
11. To ask the Minister of Trade and Industry to state the action his Ministry has taken to prevent unreasonable price increases during the Chinese New Year Season.
12. To ask the Minister of Foreign Affairs to state the action his Ministry had taken on the letter KPP.0.312/ 33 – (27) which was sent by Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries following my telegram to the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries appealing for government intervention to bring this matter to the Indonesian authorities to protect 600 Malacca Fishermen from harassment and kidnapping and to state whether any agreement has been made with the Indonesian authorities to permit Malacca fishermen to fish in the Straits of Malacca without fear of loss of life or property.
13. To ask the Minister of Home Affairs to state whether he would liberalise citizenship provisions for a period of 3 months to enable stateless persons born in Malaysia before Merdeka Day in 1957 to take up Malaysian citizenship, provided they declare their undivided allegiance to remove a source of social-economic discontent in the country.
14. To ask the Minister of Health to give the monthly mortality figures for the Malacca General Hospital from January to July 1973, and to give separate mortality figures for the period from July 21st to August 20th 1973.
15. To ask the Prime Minister whether he would consider making May 1st a paid public holiday, so that workers in the private sector can join public employees in having a paid public holiday to celebrate the Labour Day and labour’s role in the country’s national development.
16. To ask the Prime Minister to state:
a) the number names and positions of public officers whose services were terminated under the emergency regulation embodied in General Orders 44 3(D) which gave the government powers to terminate the services of any officer in the public interest, giving separate particulars the years 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973; and
b) whether he would accede to representations from public service employees’ unions and modify the regulation to provide for a public officer so affected to be told of the grounds for the termination of his service and be given an opportunity to defend himself.
17. To ask the Minister of Labour to state the number of workers in
a) estates and
b) mines who are still living in sub-standard quarters, and to state how long more is required before all estate mining workers in Malaysia will be living in decent quarters as provided by the Minimum Housing Standards Act passed 1966.
18. To ask the Minister of Land Development to state whether his Ministry proposes to carry out radical land reforms in Kedah so that every padi farmer will own from eight to ten acres padi land which he cultivates, and if so, to give details; and if not, why not.
19. To ask the Minister of Labour and Manpower to state the number of workers displaced from the rubber estate sector for each year from 1967 to 1973, and to state whether Government would draw up a special scheme to specially resettle the retrenched estate workers.
20. To ask the Minister of Labour and Manpower to state what he considers as a fair living wage for an industrial worker and to state what steps his Ministry has taken to ensure that all workers in Malaysia receive a fair, decent living wage.
QUESTION FOR WRITTEN ANSWERS
1. To ask the Minister of Labour and Manpower to give a breakdown of jobs created in each sector of the economy for the years 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973, giving state by state figures, together with the unemployment figures for each state for the same years.
2. To ask the Minister of Labour and Manpower to state the number of workers in i) estates and ii) mines whose services were terminated or were retrenched, giving figures for each year from 1967 to 1973.
3. To ask the Prime Minister to give the latest electorate for every State and Parliamentary constituency in West Malaysia, giving a breakdown of each electorate according to the races.
4. To ask the Minister of Communications to state the number of taxi licences that were issued for 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973, giving state by state figures and the names and addresses of the licences.
5. To ask the Prime Minister to state the number of Government employees, giving separate figures for each division for each year since 1967 together with the annual salary bill for the same period.