by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Kota Mela, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Sunday, 30.3.1986:
Call on MCA, Gerakan and MIC to take a principled stand on Sabah and not to use the issue merely to compete with each other to curry favour with UMNO
MCA Deputy President, Datuk Ling Liong Sik, said in Muar yesterday that the MCA supported the Sabah Formula to resolve the Sabah crisis.
I find Datuk Dr. Ling’s statement, together with the other statements by MCA, Gerakan and MIC leaders right from the beginning expressing blanket approval and support for UMNO’s Sabah Formula, most shocking, for clearly to these Barisan parties, the plight and rights of Sabahans are not important, only their competition with each other to curry favour with UMNO!
I simply cannot understand how MCA, Gerakan and MIC could, for instance, agree with the original Sabah Formula, which proposed a coalition government of PBS, USNO and Berjaya without holding Sabah State General Elections, although the Sabah State Assembly had been dissolved.
Again, I cannot understand how MCA, Gerakan and MIC could give blind approval to a Sabah Formula which does not involve two important elements:
Firstly, the undertaking by the Government and Police to arrest and prosecute all those involved in the 10-day campaign of fear and violence in Sabah since March 12, 1986 through demonstrations, bomb blasts, arson and rioting causing five deaths, many injured and some $10 million worth of property destroyed;
Secondly, the repatriation of all Filipino immigrants, whether with work permits or without, for their role in the 10-day anarchy in Sabah has highlighted their threat to law and order, political stability and national unity of Malaysia.
In fact, I accuse the MCA, Gerakan and MIC Ministers of having failed in their duty in not demanding in Cabinet that all those who had been responsible for the offences of unlawful assembly, illegal processions, rioting, criminal conspiracy to cause arson, bomb blasts, and to topple the elected system of government, should be arrested and prosecuted, regardless of their political position or influence.
In the MCA, Gerakan and MIC Ministers in Cabinet cannot speak up for democracy, justice and fair play in Sabah inside and outside Cabinet, and not to use the people of Sabah as tools in their competition with each other to curry UMNO’s favour.
DAP welcomes Dr. Mahathir’s Kota Bahru statement that Sabah state elections would be held
I welcome Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed’s Kota Bahru statement on Friday that Sabah state general elections would have to be held, as the Sabah State Assembly had been dissolved and that the dissolution by the Sabah Yang di-Pertua Negeri could not be revoked.
If the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, had made this clear to the three Sabah parties, PBS, USNO and Berjaya, when he went to Kota Kinabalu on Monday, 24th March 1986, to present UMNO’s Sabah Formula, there would not have been the intense political suspicion and turmoil in the subsequent days.