DAP deplore Malayan Banking’s determination to close down Sing Pin by retrenching 323 employees without giving the Chinese community an opportunity to save the 47-year-old Penang-based Chinese daily.

Press Conference Statement by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General, MP for Tanjung and Assemblyman for Kampong Kolam, Lim Kit Siang, in Parliament House on Wednesday, 22.10.1986 at 2 p.m.

DAP deplore Malayan Banking’s determination to close down Sing Pin by retrenching 323 employees without giving the Chinese community an opportunity to save the 47-year-old Penang-based Chinese daily.

I deplore the action by Malayan Banking to issue retrenchment letters to the 323 Sing Pin Jih Poh workers, which marks the Malayan Banking’s determination to close down Sing Pin Jih Pao, the 47-year-old Penang-based Chinese daily, without giving the Chinese community an opportunity to save this cultural institution from extinction.

Early this month, I had sent a Protest Note to the Chairman and Directors of the Malayan banking, reminding them of Maybank’s corporate responsibility, and in particular, not to be the first bank to close down the first Chinese newspaper in Malaysia. Unfortunately, my advice to Malayan Banking has fallen on deaf ears, for Malayan Banking not only appointed receivers to take over the management of Sing Pin Jih Pao, it had also stopped publication of the 47-year-old daily, taken the third step to retrench all the Sing Pin Jih Pao employees.

Malayan Banking has decided to close down the first Chinese newspaper for a $1.7 million debt. Can Malayan Banking enumerate it list of debtors who owe the Malayan Banking more than $1.7 million, and whether it has taken receivership and liquidation proceedings against all these debtors?

May Bank must never lose sight of the important fact that Sing Pin Jih Pao is not just an ordinary business concern, but represent the cultural manifestation of the Malaysian Chinese, and because of its cultural role, should be given a different consideration from ordinary business enterprises.

The May Bank Chairman and Directors should be aware of government proposal to introduce legislation to help ‘ailing companies’. The Government intends to amend Companies Act 1965 by introducing a new Part VIII entitled ‘Official Management’, which comprises new sections 192A to 192AA. This amendment will provide that a company or creditors of a company which is or will be unable to pay its debts may apply to the Court to have the company placed under the official management of an official manager, if there is a reasonable probability of rehabilitating the company or preserving its business or that the interests of creditors would be better served by having the company under official management than by resorting to a winding up of the company.

Under the proposed amendment, the Court may take an official management order and appoint an official manager if the Court is satisfied the company could not pay its debts and that the order will secure the survival of the company as a going concern, or other reasons.

Why is Malayan Banking ‘beating the gun’, instead of waiting for the amendment to the Companies Act in the current Parliamentary meeting, which will give Sing Pin Jih Pao a new lease of life?

I regret that the Maybank Board of Directors is completely insensitive to the cultural aspirations of the Chinese community, by refusing to exhaust all possible avenues to save the Sing Pin Jih Pao.

The DAP takes a very serious view of Maybank’s refusal to be more sensitive and sympathetic to the attempt to save the 47-year-old Sing Pin Jih Pao, and will consider whether and what protest actions to express the DAP’s great displeasure with Maybanks hard-line stand against Sing Pin Jih Pao.

Datuk Lim Kheng Kim should not delay any longer in surrendering the ownership right to Chinese community or be condemned by entire Chinese community for causing the death of a Chinese cultural institution

Sing Pin Chairman, Datuk Lim Kheng him, must bear on even greater responsibility than Maybank for the Sing Pin Jih Pao’s fate today, and he should not delay any longer to immediately surrender the ownership right of Sing Pin Jih Pao to the Chinese community. Otherwise, he would be condemned by the entire Chinese community for the death of a Chinese cultural institution – the 47-year-old Penang-based Chinese daily.

Maybank’s statement two days ago that on April 4, the Sing Pin Jih Pao’s permit to publish the newspaper had been transferred to another company, Forward Group Sdn. Bhd., demands a full explanation by Datuk Lim Kheng Kim as to why this was done, its motive and background.

Chinese newspaper proprietors must realise that they have a greater responsibility than making dollars and cents for themselves, and that their greater responsibility is to promote the cultural responsibility vested in a Chinese newspaper. Datuk Lim Kheng Kim therefore owes the Chinese community, not only in Penang but the whole of Malaysia, a duty to explain how and why he had allowed another ‘cultural light’ of the Malaysian Chinese to be snuffed out.

Datuk Lim Kheng Khim should also be frank and forthright with the Chinese community about the position of another of his Chinese newspaper, Sin Chew Jit Poh, for Datuk Lim Kheng Khim would have done the Chinese community the greatest disservice if he plunges the Chinese society into one Chinese newspaper crisis after another.

Penang Gerakan and MCA Assemblymen must also be condemned for confusing to save Sing Pin Jih Pao by support my Assembly motion for a $250,000 State Government loan to the 47-year-old daily

Apart from Maybank and Datuk Lim Kheng Khim, the Gerakan and MCA Assemblymen in Penang have also let down the Sing Pin Jih Pao employees and the Chinese society at large, for their refusal to support DAP motion in the Penang State Assembly last week that the Penang State Government advance a $250,000 loan to Sing Pin Jih Pao as an interim basis for a long-term rescue plan.

If the Gerakan and MCA Assemblymen had acted with a greater sense of responsibility to the Chinese community and the Malaysian culture, they would not have adopted their attitude of ‘seeing the dying, and not wanting to save.’

It is still not too late for the Penang State Government to come to the rescue of Sing Pin Jih Pao, and I call on the Penang State Executive Council to approve an emergency advance of $250,000 to Sing Pin Jih Pao to start the rescue process rolling again.

It is certainly more worthwhile to allocate $250,000 to try to save a cultural institution which is so identified with Penang like the 47-year-old Sing Pin Jih Pao, and the 323 employees affected, than wasting and losing tens of millions of dollars in dubious commercial and industrial ventures through the Penang Development Corporation.

Call on Penang Chinese Town Hall and Penang Chinese Chamber of Commerce to fulfill their promise to save Sing Pin Jih Pao

When Sing Pin Jih Pao terminated publication other instructions of the receivers appointed by Maybank, the Penang Chinese Town Hall and Penang Chinese Chamber of Commerce promised the Chinese society as well as the 323 Sing Pin Jih Pao employees that they will work out a financial rescue plan for the 47-year-old Penang-based Chinese daily.

The Penang Chinese Town Hall and the Penang Chinese Chamber of Commerce have up to now produced nothing, and another crisis has been created with the retrenchment notices to the Sing Pin Jih Pao employees.

I remind the Penang Chinese Town Hall and Penang Chinese Chamber of Commerce officials that the time has come for action, and not for words anymore, and that both the highest Chinese organizations in the Penang State should assume their responsibility to prove that they could save Sing Pin Jih Pao.

DAP calls for a White Paper to be released on the Makuwasa escapade with EPF funds

Deputy Finance Minister, Ng Cheng Kiat, told Parliament yesterday that the Government has decided to dissolve Makuwasa Securities Sdn. Bhd., and that this dissolution will take place after ‘a few matters’ had been resolved.

In reply to my supplementary question to demand to know the full details of the Makuwasa share transactions and accounts, Ng Cheng Kiat said Makuwasa is a government-owned company and the people have the right to know its accounts, but that he required notice.

I call on the Government to issue a White Paper on the entire Makuwasa episode, and in particular with regard to its share dealings with EPF investments, resulting in the five million EPF contributors losing $10 million because the EPF gave shares to Makuwasa at below market-price.

Ng Cheng Kiat said as on Oct. 15, Makuwasa’s realized gain from sales of shares was $9.75 million, while its unrealized paper loss was $453,642 – giving a net profit of $9.25 million. I call on the Government to return the entire profits realized by Makuwasa Securities Sdn. Bhd. to be repaid to EPF, which will not be able to cover the entire loss incurred by EPF by the Makuwasa transactions, for EPF lost $9.9 million.

It is clear that the government has decided to dissolve Makuwasa Securities Sdn. Bhd., because it is illegal for Makuwasa to use EPF funds and shares for its own gain, to the detriment of the five million EPF contributors. If the government does not agree to repay the Makuwasa profits to EPF, we will consider taking legal action against both EPF and Makuwasa to protect the interest of the million EPF contributors.