Press Conference Statement by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, at the launching of the ‘Save Bukit China’ 200,000 mass signature campaign and Sale of ‘Save Bukit China’ T-shirts in the Federal Territory at Pudu Market, Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, 11th August 1984 at 8.30 a.m.
Datuk Lee Kim Sai should keep quiet if he knows nothing about the Bukit China issue instead of showing his ignorance
Datuk Lee Kim Sai has created the image that he is ‘Chinese saviour No.2’ after Tan Koon Swan in the battle for MCA power against Neo Yee Pan and group. But Datuk Lee Kim Sai’s speech on the Bukit China issue in the August-8 3,000 People Dinner in Malacca was as ignorant and ridiculous as that given by Tan Koon Swan.
In his speech, Datuk Lee said I had created too hurriedly without thought. He suggested that the Chinese society should do is to make a counter-proposal to the Malacca State Government with regard to its first proposal, and Datuk Lee said that this counter proposal is that ‘the question of whether to develop Bukit China or not should be decided by the Chinese community’.
This exactly what the DAP had been saying right from the beginning, that we reject the Malacca Chief Minister’s three options for the development of Bukit China for they represented no option. The Chinese community as the owners of Bukit China through Cheng Hoon Teng Temple, the trustees, must have the right to decide whether to develop or not, and not compelled by the State Government to agree to development. It was the Tan Koon Swan MCA faction in Malacca led by Chan Teck Chan which opposed this, wanting the people to support the Chief Minister.
How could a political leader with such experience as Lee Kim Sai accused me of reacting too hastily, and made a proposal which the DAP had made right from the beginning of the Bukit China controversy? It would appear that Tan Koon Swan is not the only MCA leader who does not read newspaper when he made the shocking admission on August 8 dinner to Malacca reporters that he never knew that the Malacca Chief Minister had announced on July 23 that the State Government wanted to level and develop 80 per cent of Bukit China, into a housing and commercial centre, and use the earth for land reclamation.
Datuk Lee Kim Sai also does not read newspaper!
If the way Tan Koon Swan and Datuk Lim Kim Sai handled the Bukit China issue is the way they would handle the political crisis faced by the Malaysian Chinese whose political, economic, educational, cultural and religious rights are facing unprecedented erosion, when they become MCA leaders by toppling Neo Yee Pan, then the future of the Malaysian Chinese would be very bleak indeed.
Call on all Malaysians to support the 200,000 ‘Save Bukit China’ Mass Signature Campaign
In attending the August 8 3,000-People Dinner in Malacca, both Tan Koon Swan and Lee Kim Sai have done great harm to the nation-wide campaign to preserve Bukit China as a national heritage for all Malaysians.
I am here to launch the 200,000 ‘Save Bukit China’ mass signature campaign, to rally Malaysians together for the common cause to preserve our national heritage, and to let the government hear the real voice of Malaysians.
This is the third State, after Malacca and Negri Sembilan, where the 200,000 ‘Save Bukit China’ Mass Signature Campaign has been launched. I would launched the campaign in Penang this evening, tomorrow, Perak on Monday, morning, Selangor on Monday evening, Johore on Tuesday morning.
I believed that the 200,000 ‘Save Bukit China’ Mass Signature Campaign would get the support for it which it deserved.