Speech by Parliamentary opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General, MP for Tanjung and Assemblyman for Kampong Kolam, Lim Kit Siang, at the official opening of the DAP Tranquerah constituency office in Jalan Tranquerah, Malacca on Thursday, 11.9.1986 at 10 a.m.
Call on MCA and Gerakan branches and members to pressure their Ministers to raise the Abdullah Ahmad speech issue in Cabinet.
The MCA and Gerakan ministers have disappointed the people; in particular the Malaysian Chinese whom they claim to represent, by their cowardly and evasive attitude where they dare not even say a word about the Singapore speech of UMNO Mp for Kok Lanas, Datuk Abdullah Ahmad, in the Cabinet yesterday.
I call on MCA and Gerakan branches and members to put pressure on their Ministers, whether MCA Ministers like Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik, Datuk Lee Kim Sai, Datuk Chan Siang sung, or Gerakan Minister Datuk Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, to have the courage, responsibility and sense of duty to raise the issue of Datuk Abdullah Ahmad’s speech in Singapore in Cabinet, and demand that the Cabinet dissociate itself from Datuk Abdullah’s seditious, disloyal and treasonable speech. The MCA and Gerakan Ministers should also get the Cabinet to direct the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Abu Falib Othmen, to lodge a police report and institute criminal proceedings against Datuk Abdullah Ahmad.
The question that everyone must ask is what is the use of having MCA and Gerakan Ministers if they dare not even say a single word about the people’s condemnation of datuk Abdullah’s speech in the Cabinet meeting.
The MCA and Gerakan Ministers have failed the Malaysian people in the two previous Cabinet meetings last week and yesterday, and I hope in the third Cabinet meeting next Wednesday on 16th September 1986 after Datuk Abdullah’s Singapore speech, they will not disappoint the people a gain.
DAP to organize a National Conference on Tan Cheng Lock in Malacca next month to show that he is a great nationalist patriot and leader of Malaysia.
In his Singapore speech, Datuk Abdullah also insulted the memory of the greatest illustrious son of Malacca, Tun Tan Cheng Lock, when he said that “there will not be another Tan Cheng Lock in Malaysia” when Tun Tan Cheng Lock should be model for Malaysians so that there will be more Tan Cheng lock in the future.
It is more pitiful that the MCA dare not say even a word about the derogatory and insulting reference to their founding and first MCA President. If MCA leader the present leaders do not have the self-respect and courage to stand up for the memory and good name of their founding President, the DAP will speak up for the DAP MCA leaders and members. In fact, we will speak up for all Malaysians, for we cannot have a common national destiny if we denigrate each other’s leaders, and refuse to accord national recognition to patriots and leaders of the country, just because they belong to another race.
As far back as 60 years ago in 1926, Tan Cheng Lock advocated a united, self-governing Malayan nation, free from British colonial rule. In post-war Malaya, Tan Cheng Lock was in the forefront of the battle for the creation of an independent Malayan nation with “equal citizenship rights the creation of all making Malaya their permanent home and the object of their loyalty”.
There are those who want to re-write and revise history, to deny the historic fact that Malaysia today is the unique heritage and product of all races who have made Malaysia their home, and disregard the contributions all racial, religious and cultural groups in the creation of Malaysia today. This is one of the reasons behind those who in 1984 wanted to demolish Bukit China, for it is a historic proof of the contribution of Malays and Chinese in the founding of Malacca and Malaysia.
The DAP will organize a National Conference in Malacca next month on Tun Tan Cheng Lock to remind all Malaysians that he is a great Malaysian nationalist, patriot and leader, and to redeem his historic place in Malaysia.
This National Conference is open to all Malaysians and I hope eminent Malaysians will come forward and even volunteer to participate to ensure that Tan Cheng Lock’s historic place in Malaysian nation-building is not dishonored.
The Committee organizing the National Conference on Tan Cheng Lock will be headed by the Member of Parliament for Kota Melaka, Lim Guan Eng, and a full committee will be established and announced shortly.
DAP calls for an explanation from Anwar Ibrahim on the STDV Assessment paper equating ‘penderhaka’ with ‘orang yang menentang kerajaan’
The Barisan Nasional Government must set an example of sensitivity and respect for all races and opinions in the country, but it is often doing the opposite.
In the Std. V. Assesment Test Bahasa Malaysia Paper, it asked the students to define ‘penderhaka’, giving the following four choices:
A. orang yang terlalu sombong;
B. orang yang menentang kerajaan;
C. orang yang suke menunjuk-nunjuk;
D. orang yang suka bercakap banyak;
Clearly the examiners’ correct answer will be those who equate ‘penderhaka’ with ‘orang yang suka menentang kerajaan’. This is most shocking!
Is the Barisan nasional government trying to implant in the minds of the children and students that those who oppose the government, and in particular the Barisan Nasional government are ‘penderhaka’?
This is against Rukunegara, the Malaysian Constitution and against all that Malaysia stands for. The person who set this question should be sacked from public service as a menace and threat to Malaysian nation-building.
Penderhaka must be strictly defined as ‘orang yang menentang negara’ or otherwise, the 45% of the Malaysian electorate who voted against the Barisan Nasional in the August 3 general elections would all become ‘penderhaka’.
MCA and Gerakan Ministers should pay more attentions to get the government to act swiftly to restore normalcy and confidence in the 24 co-operatives.
The 540,000member and depositors of the 24 co-operatives frozen by bank Negara who had expected a clear-cut government decision in yesterday’s Cabinet meeting to allow the co-operatives to resume operations have been greatly disappointed by further one or two-week postponement of Cabinet consideration of their plight.
MCA and Gerakan Ministers must work hard and pay more attention to the problems of the people, instead of being interested about their own party internal affairs.
Surely, MCA and Gerakan Ministers should be aware of the great hardships which the month-long freeze on the 24 deposit-taking co-operatives has cased to the ordinary man who had deposited their life-savings with the co-operatives.
At the rate things are going, the government may take more than two months to decide on the future of the $1.6 billion deposits instead of the four weeks originally promised by bank Negara – all because the Cabinet Ministers are not very serious in their duties.
I call on the MCA and Gerakan Ministers to see to it that the Cabinet could take a decision on the 24 co-ops by next Wednesday, instead of dragging the issue week after week.
In this connection, I also hope that the MCA and Gerakan Ministers will raise in next Wednesday’s Cabinet the issue of the Central Co-operative Bank which has an estimated bad loan problem of $250 million.
I said yesterday that a deputy MCA Minister has a $20 million loan with CCB. Today I want to ask the MCA Ministers and leaders to explain why and when KSM took a $40 million loan from the CCB.
The CCB should explain why it gave out such loans to individuals, for instance a Tan Sri loan of $12 million from CCB, another individual and his group had $52 million loan from CCB, while a Datuk and his relatives got a $30 million loan from CCB.
Both the Co-operative Department and bank Negara should immediately conduct an investigation into the CCB to ensure that there will not be another Bank Rakyat scandal.