Press Statement by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Tuesday, January 23, 1985:
Call on MCA and Gerakan to start taking the problem of illegal Indonesian immigrants seriously, and demand for Cabinet action to check and repatriate the illegal immigrants.
The killing of Lee Pin Liang, 32, son of Lee Hong, the special assistant to MCA Acting President, Datuk Neo Yee Pan, by a suspected Illegal Indonesian immigrant in Johore Bahru yesterday should arouse MCA and Gerakan leaders to the seriousness of the problem posed by illegal Indonesian immigrants.
The DAP had tried to arouse the consciousness of the people to the
security and social problems posed by the illegal Indonesian immigrants,
that when the illegal Indonesian immigrants kill, rob or rape, they would
do so mercilessly, and would not stop to ask which political party the
I intended victim belongs to.
MCA and Gerakan Ministers should wake up from their stupor, and
their obsession with internal party power struggle, and spend some meaningful
time on the issues affecting the people, as in demanding firm Cabinet action
to resolve the long-standing problem of illegal Indonesian immigrants
by checking their influx and the repatriation of the hundreds of thousands
who are already in the country.
The DAP had launched a campaign in Johore two months
ago to hold people’s protest meetings against the illegal Indonesian immigrants,
but unfortunately, the MCA and Gerakan leaders and branches were not
concerned about this problem, until their near ones are harmed.
I still remember that one of the first actions I took when
Parliament first met after the 1982 general elections was to ask Parliament to
adopt a motion to express Parliament’s condemnation of the influx of
illegal Indonesian immigrants, but this motion was rejected not only by
UMNO Ministers and MPs, it was also rejected by MCA and Gerakan Ministers
and MPs.
Last month, I had publicly proposed to the MCA and Gerakan leaders
to hold a round-table conference with the DAP on the Bukit China issue as
well as on the issue of Illegal Indonesian immigrants, but even those
advocates of ‘three into one’ from the Gerakan-Tung-Chiau-Chung elements
spurned the DAP offers.
MCA and Gerakan leaders must decide whether they want to
concentrate their efforts and energies to deal with issues of great
concern to the people and country, or they are only interested in the fight
between the Neo Yee Pan and Tan Koon Swan factions in MCA and the Lim
Keng Yaik and Michael Chen factions in Gerakan.
If the MCA and Gerakan leaders are not prepared to do anything
positive to deal with the people’s problems, then everytime the illegal
Indonesian immigrants strike again, whether in robbery, rape or murder,
then it is a fresh reminder to the people of the failure and utter
uselessness of the MCA and Gerakan in Malaysian politics.
I have instructed the DAP National Committee on Illegal Indonesian
Immigrants, headed by Sdr. Hu Sepang, (Negri Sembilan Assemblyman for Rahang}
to hold people’s public protest meetings in the Johore Bahru and surrounding
areas to protest against the killing of Lee Pin Liang as well as criminal activities
by illegal Indonesian immigrants.