Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Petaling, Lim Kit Siang, at the Seminyih DAP Branch 1,000-People Dinner organised at Seminyih, Selangor, on Saturday, 25th July 1981 at 8pm
Call in Malaysia to beware of unscrupulous persons trying to fleece them, like tontine disappearances and $3 holding companies illegally raking in tens of millions of dollars , helping to create a very tight money market
Malaysia is facing a very tight money market situation, and businessmen, in particular the small-timers, are finding it very difficult to do business. Money appears to have disappeared, and everyone complains that it is difficult and almost impossible to call in the debts. Businessmen from all walks of life complain of a sharp drop in business, some as sharp as 50% drop.
The situation, which had been going on for over a month, will worsen in the next few month. This is the result of a combination of various factors.
One major factor, of course, is the MCA through various national and state holding companies, cleaning up hundreds of millions of dollars of the people’s hard-earned saving.
I am not opposed to the people investing in shares of in holding shares (which is nothing but one type of shares), provided that these are sound investments, based on healthy company growth and projections.
But this is not the case with the various MCA State Holdings. For instance, the Johore MCA State Holding, which is nothing more than a $2 company, had raked in some $60 million, illegally against the Companies Act provisions. Even now, after over a month of having raked in this $60 million, Matang Holdings Bhd. had not said a word or issued any share certificate. Just put this amount of $60 million in fixed deposit for three months under special rates will net a few MCA individuals a profit of a few million dollars!
This is the same with other MCA State Holdings Companies, whether in Perak of Pahang, which had invited public subscriptions without the legal requirement of having a prospectus registered with the Registrar f Companies, or other $3 holding companies of a few MCA individuals cashing in on the ‘holding share’ fever created by the MCA, like Cerdik Holdings Bhd. which are the private holding company of three MCA officials.
Recently, the newspapers regularly report of tontine disappearances where the people’s hard-earned savings are lost. Holding companies which have only $2 or $3 paid up capital, and which have no prospectus registered with the Registry of Companies as required by law, are as sound as tontines!
I call on Malaysians to beware of unscrupulous persons trying to fleece them, like tontine disappearances and $3 holdings companies illegally raking in tens of millions of dollars. Those who have bought share holdings from the various MCA state holding companies must insist on proper protection of their money.
The Recent sharp drop in the share market should be a reminder to everyone that buying shares or ‘holding shares’ in no guarantee that an investment of $1,000 can become 410,000. As I had said, if it the MCA leaders are certain that an investment of $1,000 can become $10,000, all the MCA leaders would have sold, mortgaged or disposed of all their assets and properties to dump in to ‘holding shares’ to realise a ten-fold increase n value, and not gie the ordinary people any opportunity to have this opportunity to turn $1 into $10.
Many people have blamed the various MCA holdings companies for creating the tight money market situation, which have contributed greatly to the sharp drop in shares. It is clear that even before the benefits of the various state MCA holding shares can be seen, if ever, the harmful effects on the money market and business conditions had already been felt by the public.
Call on the Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, to direct all federal departments and state governments to cut down waste, extravagance and squander
Although Malaysia is fortunate to earn petro-dollars from petroleum, which has overtaken rubber as the country’s No.1 income earner, Malaysia is going through difficult times with double-digit inflation and drop in the prices of the major export commodities like rubber, tin, I palm oil and timber.
At a time when the people, especially the poor, are finding it more and more difficult to make ends meet, it is essential that the Government set an example of austerity.
I call on the Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, to direct all federal government departments and state governments to cut out all waste, extravagance and squander, and to make every dollar spent worth its development purpose.
The $4.4 million the Selangor State Government is spending to erect a ‘March Arch’ to demarcate the boundaries of Selangor State and Federal Territory at the Federal Highway in Petaling Jaya is colossal example of government waste and extravagance in utter disregard of proper spending priorities to uplift the socio-economic livelihood of the people.
The $4.4 million would have been better spent to provide basic amenities of water and electricity for the Kampong Jaya and the entire squatter settlement behind MAHA grounds, for instance.
The $4.4 million ‘March Arch’ of the Selangor State Government will stand as a monument of the folly and extravagance of the Selangor State Government, and Dr. Mahathir must sent out a stern directive to stop other State Governments from embarking on such ‘White Elephants’ and ‘March Arches’ which bring no social utility, but only complicate traffic flow in the Highway.
Politics of Money
The DAP hopes that Dr. Mahathir will take a firm stand against corruption in all its forms, and in particular political corruption, where politicians made use of their politicians made use of their political positions for personal gain.
The worst kind of political corruption, of cours, are those who sell their political positions and betray their political parties for self-interest, as happened to several DAP MPs and State Assemblymen recently.
Of course, whenever they want to betray the DAP, these opportunists would use all sorts of high-sounding reasons, like ‘Chinese unity’, when everybody knows that they are motivated by ‘Money Unity’.
If such political ‘buying and selling’ are allowed, then corruption cannot be stamped out.