Press Conference Statement (3) by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General, Lim Kit Siang, in Penang on Monday, 29.7.l985.
Urgent cables to MCA and Gerakan Ministers to raise Sim Kie Chong’s commutation on Wednesday’s Cabinet: If Mochtar Hashim could be pardoned, Sim has greater right to live
I have just sent urgent cables to the four MCA Ministers, Datuk Dr. Neo Yee Pan (Housing and Local Government), Tan Sri Chong Hong Nyan (Transport), Datuk Mak Hon Kam (Labour) Datuk Chin Hon Ngian (Health) and the Gerakan Minister, Datuk Paul Leong (Primary Industries) to raise the question of Sim Kee Chon’s commutation from death sentence to life imprisonment on Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting.
This may be the last Cabinet meeting where the MCA and Gerakan Ministers would have the opportunity to raise Sim’s case. The Mission of Mercy to save Sim Kie Chon is in a race against time, as Sim may be hanged any time as both the High Court and the Supreme Court had refused to grant a stay of
execution of the death penalty.
This campaign is not only to save one human life, but also to save Malaysia’s international reputation; as Malaysia is in danger of being regarded as a barbaric and unjust nation by other countries, especially if a former Minister who killed another person could be pardoned, while an ordinary rakyat who did not harm or kill anyone had to be sent to the gallows.
My cable to the MCA and Gerakan Ministers, which was sent individually, read:
“Urge you to bring up Sim Kie Chong’s commutation
on Wednesday’s Cabinet as matter of great urgency.
Malaysia’s international reputation at stake if there
are double standards between Ministers and ordinary
Malaysians. If Mochtar Hashim could be pardoned, Sim
has greater right to live.
Lim Kit Siang
Parliamentary Opposition Leader.”
It is being spread by the Tan Koon Swan MCA faction that Neo Yee Pan is being forced out of Cabinet, and that at the end of the three weeks’ overseas leave beginning next week, he would not be returning to the MCA helm of leadership or Cabinet. If this is true, then Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting would be Neo Yee Pan’s last Cabinet meeting. Let Neo Yee Pan, in his last and final Cabinet meeting, help to save not only one human life, but even more important, save Malaysia’s international reputation, as well as
help restore the confidence of Malaysians in the legal and judicial system of justice and equality.