Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, at a DAP Ceramah organised by the Kuala Lumpur DAP State Committee at Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur on Thursday Nov 29, 1984 at 8.30pm
DAP calls on the Government to stop closing its eyes to the illegal Indonesian immigrant problem and to have a sense of urgency to check the influx because of the long-term social and law and order poblems for Malaysians
The Indonesian Ambassador to Malaysia, Lt. Jen. Himawan Seoharto, has said that his embassy was collecting data on illegal Indonesian immigrants in Malaysia to determine the seriousness of the problem.
The illegal Indonesian immigrants problem has definitely reached the magnitude to deserve being classified as a national problem, to the extent that it might affect the good relations between the people of the two ASEAN neighbours.
The DAP calls on the Malaysian Government to stop closing its eyes to the illegal Indonesian immigrant problem and to have a sense of urgency to check the influx because of the present and long-term social and law and order problems for Malaysians. The Chow Kit area in Kuala Lumpur, for instance, has virtually become a colony of the illegal Indonesian immigrants.
For reasons best known to itself, the Malaysian Government has publicly pretended that the problem of the illegal Indonesian immigrants does not exist. Two days ago, during question time, I asked the Deputy Home Affairs Minister, Radzi Sheikh Ahmad, what is the government’s estimates of the total number of illegal Indonesian immigrants in Malaysia-whether it is 10,000, 100,000 or 300,000- but the Deputy Minister just answered that the Government does not have figures.
This shows the government’s lack of concern to the overall problem of illegal Indonesian immigrants in Malaysia, the crimes they commit and the social problems they create.
The people must demand to know from their MPs, Assemblymen and Ministers why they are pretending that the problem of illegal Indonesian immigrants does not exist, when the people for many years had found that the illegal Indonesian immigrants are becoming a social menace.
The government have all the resources and facilities to pinpoint the various points of entry of the illegal Indonesian immigrants, but it has refused to close off these points of entry.
I want to ask the Malaysian government how many more crimes must be committed by the illegal Indonesian immigrants, how many more murders, rapes armed robberies, before the government would give this problem the serious attention it deserves.
I am calling an emergency meeting of the DAP Johore State Committee and DAP branch leaders in Batu Pahat on Sunday, 2nd Dec 1984 at 3.30pm to discuss this grave problem, for the people of Johore are experiencing the most number of incidents involving illegal Indonesian immigrants.
DAP reiterates call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the BMF loans scandal
The press reports today that the Bank Bumiputra had logged two police reports had highlighted the most unsatisfactory way the $2.5 billion Bumiputra Malaysia Finance loans scandal is being handled and investigated.
From the two police reports, it is clear that the Bank Bumiputra and the authorities want to give the impression that the BMF loans scandal is merely a problem of mal-administration at the management level, and have nothing to do with policy decisions which had been taken with regard to the granting of the $2.5 billion bad loans to three companies in Hong Kong.
The Ahmad Nordin BMF Inquiry Committee, being a house inquiry appointed by the Bank Bumiputra, would have no power to investigate beyond the confines of BMF and Bank Bumiputra, and would not be able to pursue the decision-making authority and process which are superior to Bank Bumiputra and BMF.
It would be very difficult for Malaysians to believe that in a colossal sum involving $2.5 billion BMF loans, the highest political approval had not been given. But clearly, the Ahmad Nordin BMF Inquiry Committee would not have the power or jurisdiction to pursue this important aspect.
Just to make a few BMF or Bank Bumiputra officials take the blame for the $2.5 billion BMF scandal is not good enough. The country wants to know the whole truth as to who gave the authority for such BMF adventures with Carrian, Eda and Kevin Hsu groups of companies.
This is why the DAP reaffirm its call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the BMF scandal, for only a Royal Commission of Inquiry can get to the bottom of the BMF loans scandal.
The Finance Minister, Daim Zainuddin, has repeatedly said that there would be no ‘cover up’. Let Daim and the Government seek an opinion poll from Malaysians on their view as to whether there has been any cover up in the BMF loans scandal in the government’s refusal to establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry and in its record of handling the BMF loans scandal.
I have no doubt that the overwhelming majority of Malaysians will be of the view that the Government had been trying to stage-manage a ‘cover up’ of the BMF scandal.
Daim Zainuddin said that if the people are not satisfied with the government’s handling of the BMF loans scandal, they could vote the ruling parties out at the next general elections.
This is the whole problem- the realisation that in the next general elections, they would be returned to power, regardless of what they do, has made the government disregard the people’s legitimate views and aspirations, and even the government’s own pledge to have a ‘clean, efficient and trustworthy and administration’.
Daim Zainuddin has said that the BMF loans scandal is a ‘national shame’. It is more than that. It is a Barisan Nasional shame in the way the government is seeking to minimise a full comprehensive public accounting to the people on the BMF loans scandal.