By Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and Mp for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Saturday, 2nd June 1984 :
DAP welcomes Dr. Mahathir’s assurance of impartial investigation and firm action over the gruesome killing of four Cheroh residents.
I welcome the assurance which the Prime Minister, and Defence Minister, Datuk Mahathir Mohamed, has given me to reply my cable to him on the gruesome killing of four Cheroh new village residents at an estate fish pond near Sungai Mas on 23rd May 1984, which had shocked and agitated the people in the entire Raub and surrounding districts.
I had sent an urgent cable to the Prime Minister after visiting Cheroh new village and met the people over the killings, asking for a thorough public inquiry and assurance that there would be no cover-up over the killing of Chong Woon Tin, 60, smallholder, his son, Chong Thin Mun, 29, Len Yew San, 42, and Chan Siew Fan, 33.
In his reply to me, Datuk Mahathir Mohamed said :
“Pihak Kerajaan akan menyiasat dengan penuh teliti berkenaan dengan pembunuhan empat orang penghuni Cheroh. Jika ada bukti kesalahan, pihak kerajaan tidak akan teragak-agak mengambil tindakan walau apa pun khidmat mereka yang bersalah. Tidak ada siapa di Malaysia yang akan dibenar melakukan jenayah dengan sesuka hati mereka.”
I call on the investigating authorities to complete and make public their findings in the shortest possible time so as to restore the public confidence of the people of Cheroh and Raub areas in the security forces.
I would be tabling a question to ask Dr. Mahathir about the Cheroh killings in the July meeting of Parliament, but I hope that the investigations would have been completed and made public, and action taken against the cold-blooded killers of the four Cheroh villagers by before then.