By Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General, MP for Tanjung and Assemblyman for Kampong Kolam, Lim Kit Siang, in Malacca on Friday, Oct. 3, 1986:
Call on 540,000 depositors of 24 frozen co-operatives to turn up in full force at the first national mass meeting organised by DAP in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday to show to the Government and the new Parliament that they have come to the end of their patience.
The DAP has decided to launch a nation-wide series of mass meetings on the 1.6 billion Co-operative Finance Scandal, starting with state-wide meetings before reaching out to every town and new village where there are people who have become victims of the co-operative finance scandal.
It is now nearly two months since the August 8 Bank Negara action freezing the 23 co-operatives, with the promise of a solution within a month. But there does not seem to be any immediate relief for the 540,000 deposited in sight – especially as the Cabinet, the Bank Negara, the Co-operative Department are all playing the game of ‘passing the buck’. This is why a so-called high-powered government committee was recently set up to find a solution for the co-operative scandal, when such a high-powered committee should have been set up on August 8 itself!
I call on the 540,000 depositors of the 24 co-operative to turn up in full force on that all the mass meetings which the DAP is planning in all the status, to be followed in towns and new villages.
Although the first such national mass meeting is to be held in Kuala Lumpur at Thean Hou Temple Hall, Jalan Syed Putra, Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, Oct. 5, at 7.30 pm, I would call on co-operative depositors from all over the country to attend this first DAP national mass meeting to show the government, the Ministers, and the new Parliament which will be meeting for the first time on Monday, that their patience are coming to an end. They want immediate government action to resolve their problems.
As the Cabinet and the Government do not seem to realise the urgency of coming out with a solution for the 540,000 depositors, the depositors must unite and act to impress on the Cabinet and Government the immediacy of their needs and the intensity of their sufferings because of the freeze of their life-savings in the 24 co-operatives.
Open invitation to MCA and Gerakan Ministers to attend Sunday’s meeting of depositors to explain what the Government is doing for them.
I wish to openly invite the MCA and Gerakan Ministers to the meeting of co-operative depositors at Thean Hou Temple Hall on in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday night, for them to explain to depositors what the Government is doing for the 540,000 depositors; and for the Ministers to realise at first hand the sufferings and hardships of the depositors.
I will guarantee to the MCA and Gerakan Minister that they will be fully respected at the meeting, that they will not be harassed or embarrassed; and I hope that the MCA and Gerakan Ministers will have the courage and public spiritedness to face the depositors on Sunday.
DAP’s 24 MPs will be allocated their respective areas of responsibilities at the DAP MPs and SAS Convention at Hotel Dayang, Petaling Jaya on Sunday.
The DAP’s 24 MPs will be assigned their respective areas of responsibilities to specialize in at the DAP MPs and Assemblymen Convention to be held at Hotel Dayang, Petaling Jaya on Sunday. This is not the formation of a Shadow Cabinet, but the appointment of MPs to be spokesman for designed portforlios.
Sunday’s convention of DAP’s 24 MPs and 37 Assemblymen will be the first of regular get-togethers of elected representatives of the DAP, to deepen their knowledge and understanding of political and economic forces in the country, as well as to enable them to exchange notes among themselves to upgrade their performances as effective MPs and Assemblymen.