Press Conference Statement by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Saturday, Dec. 15, 1984 at 10:30 a.m.
Call on Datuk Seri Abdul Rahim Thamby Cik to stop playing ‘cat and mouse’ pretending ignorance of the Japanese feasibility study of dumping Bukit China into the sea for land reclamation
The Malacca Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Abdul Rahim Thamby Cik, has said that the State Government was not aware of a Japanese pre-feasibility study which proposed levelling Bukit China to use its earth for land reclamation project on the Malacca sea-front.
Does the Malacca Chief Minister expect the people to believe his denial? If there is no such Japanese study, surely the reaction from Datuk Abdul Rahim Thamby Cik would be a very strong and violent one, instead of the mild denial put out by the Malacca Chief Minister.
Or is this another case of the Malacca State Government not knowing about the pre-feasibility study for levelling Bukit China to use the earth for land reclamation because the study was approved by some state official on a ‘bagi pihak’ basis, which enabled the Chief Minister to disown or disclaim State Government authority as in the case of the so-called error by a clerk in 1968 that Bukit China is exempted from quit rent?
Datuk Abdul Rahim Thamby Cik should stop playing ‘cat and mouse’ pretending ignorance of the Japanese pre-feasibility study report on dumping Bukit China into the sea for land reclamation. Either there is such a pre-feasibility study report by the two Japanese firms, Ohbayashi-Gumi and C. Itoh and Co., or there is no such study and report.
If there is such a report, is the Malacca Chief Minister seriously suggesting that he does not know about it? Is the Malacca Chief Minister so inefficient and incompetent that he does not know what is happening in Malacca State? If he knows about the report, why is he denying knowledge now?
The pre-feasibility study by the two Japanese firms on land reclamation, which included the proposal for levelling Bukit China for the earth for land-fill purposes, is an open secret among the people of Malacca.
In fact, in 1982, after the landside general elections victory, the Malacca State Government had started work on its plan to level Bukit China for development. At that time, Malacca Exco members were confidentially taking about the government’s intention with regard to Bukit China.
Datuk Seri Abdul Rahim Thamby Cik should remember that under the 2M government, the motto of ‘trustworthy’ political leadership must be honoured. For this reason, I call on him to make public the answers to the following questions:
1. Who commissioned the pre-feasibility study by the two Japanese firms on land reclamation project which proposed the levelling of Bukit China to use its earth for filling the sea.
2. A list of the companies which have been granted land reclamation rights, the acreage involved, and the personalities involved in these companies;
3. Whether it is not true that the Chief Minister had visited Japan to discuss with Japanese interests on the levelling and development of Bukit China, and to give full details of such discussions he had with the Japanese interests.