By Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Ipoh on Friday, March 27, l987:
Co-operative depositors who want to hold public protest meetings to put public pressure on government and co-operative directors and borrowers for an ‘dollar-to-dollar’ refund solution should contact the DAP
The Gopeng public protest meeting of co-operative deposits last night mark the kick-off of a second round of nation-wide series of public protest meetings with four clear objectives:
1. To ensure that the $l.5 billion Co-operative Finance Scandal and the sufferings of 588,000 co-operative deposits are not forgotten or buried by other issues and developments. There are those in the top MCA leadership who think that after the pay-out of a miserable l0 per cent to the majority of co-operative depositors, they could slowly but surely forget about the issue- although now and then MCA Ministers make some assuring statements about their concern.
2. To respond to the call by the Bank Negara Governor, Datuk Jaffar Hussein, in January for ‘public pressure’ on
(i) co-operative borrowers to replay their loans;
(ii) those who had ‘taken’ from the DTCs to make restitution;
(iii) those who ‘profited’ from their position of trust to pay back what rightfully belongs to depositors.
3. To make the Government and Cabinet, and in particular the MCA Ministers, realize that they must bear the greatest responsibility for the l.5 billion Co-operative Finance Scandal, initially by the MCA’s pioneering and promotion of the co-operative finance system as ‘the last line of defence for small Chinese capital’, and secondly, by the five-year irresponsibility and negligence of the government to protest the hard-earned savings of the depositors from the fraud, criminal breach of trust and thievery of co-operative directors and officials; and
4. To make clear the co-operative depositors’ determination not to rest or let up in their struggle for fair and just government solution to the $l.5 billion Co-operative Finance Scandal, with ‘dollar-to-dollar’ refund guarantee through a $600 million government rescue plan.
Co-operative depositors who want to hold protest meetings to put public pressure on the government and co-operative directors and borrowers for a ‘dollar-to-dollar’ refund solution should contact the DAP National Committee on the Co-operative Finance Scandal through DAP MPs, State Assemblymen or DAP branches.
The DAP is prepared to voice and champion the legitimate demand of the co-operative depositors, but the government, the co-operative borrowers, directors and even receivers, must be made to see that these demands have the full backing of the depositors, who are prepared to come out openly at public protest meetings to demonstrate their full support for them.
The second public protest meeting of the co-operatives after Gopeng would be held in Kuala Lumpur at the Federal Hotel Conference Hall on Sunday, 28th March l987 at 8 p.m.