Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General, MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, at the annual general meeting of Tanjong Bungah DAP Branch held on Thursday, 9.4.1987 at 8 p.m.
EPF Chairman, Tan Sri Zain Azraai and General Manager, Datuk Haji Abdul Rashid b. Mohmud, to be invited to attend the May Day EPF Contributors’s Protest Meetings to account for EPF funds.
The DAP will invite the EPF Board Chairman, Tan Sri Zain Azraai, and EPF General Manager, Datuk Haji Abdul Rashid b. Mohmud, to attend the May Day EPF Contributors’s Protest Meetings in Penang, Petaling Jaya and Ipoh to account for the utilization and investment of the EPF funds.
The 4.8 million EPF contributors are very worried about the $24,000 million EPF funds, as the various scandals in EPF has not been satisfactory accounted for. There is the EPF-Makuwasa scandal between June 1984 and March 1985, where EPF lost $10 million in the sale of shares to the $2 company, Makuwasa Securities Sdn. Bhd. There is the EPF/non-trustee stock scandal, where another $10 million was lost in 1985. there is then the EPF/Investment Co-ordinating Committee (ICC) Scandal where EPF contributed #30 million to a mysterious government operation to jack up share prices in 1985.
These EPF scandals are probably the tip of an iceberg, and reflect the shocking decline of high public standards of ability, trust, accountability, integrity, in the stewardship of public funds.
I hope Tan Sri Zain Azraai and Datuk Haji Abdul Rashid bin Mahmud would have the courage and the high sense of public responsibility to attend the May Day EPF Contributors’ Protest Meetings to explain and answer the queries and doubts of EPF contributors.
DAP forms Parliamentary Study Group on EPF under chairmanship of Lee Lam Thye
DAP takes a very serious view of the EPF scandals, as the EPF has deviated from its role as the custodian of the social security needs of the nation’s work force.
To highlight the importance of ensuring greater EPF accountability, the DAP has also decidewd to form a DAP Parliamentary Study Group on EPF, comprising Sdr. Lee Lam Thye (MP for Bukit Bintang) as Chairman, and Sdr. Gooi Hock Seng (MP for Bukit Bendera) and Sdr. V. David (MP for Puchong). The DAP Parliamentary Group on EPF will seek meetings with the EPF Chairman, EPF Board Members, EPF Investment Panel members, and the EPF General
Manager over the utilization and investment of EPF funds.
I have received complaints from EPF staff that there is afoot a move to ‘chop off’ a few hands n EPF to make them into ‘scapegoats’ for the EPF scandals. This will definitely not be in the interest of the 4.8 million EPF contributors, for what they want are not ‘scapegoats’, but the whole truth about the various EPF shares scandals.
If Lee Kim Sai is sincere wanting to resolve co-operative finance crisis, he should direct all MCA leaders and members to repay loans and reimburse all losses suffered by co-operatives
In the past few days, Lee Kim Sai, MCA Deputy President, suddenly has a lot of things to say about the $1.5 billion co-operative Finance scandal. In the past eight moths, when Bank Negara froze the 24 co-operatives, Lee Kim Sai showed me concern or interest. But because of the impending Gopeng parliamentary by-elections, Lee Kim Sai has suddenly waken up to the co-operative finance calamity of the Chinese community.
It would have server the 588,000 co-operative depositors better if Lee Kim Sai had waken up earlier to the calamity of the Chinese community because of the co-operative scandal, and had dared to champion the rights of the depositors in the Cabinet.
Yesterday, he even challenged me to bring about the whole refund of the $1.5 billion deposits of the 588,000 co=operative depositors by May 16, in which event, MCA would be willing to give the DAP a walk-over in the Gopeng by-election. The DAP is not like the MCA, which had always been begging for walk-overs from UMNO.
But is Lee Kim Sai really sincere in wanting to resolve the co-operative finance scandal and help the 588,000 co-operative depositors? Is so, then I challenge him as Deputy MCA President to direct all MCA leaders and members to repay loans and reimburse all losses suffered by the co-operatives by May 16! If Lee Kim Sai is not prepared to make a stand on this issue, then he must stand exposed as an unprincipled optician who is trying to confuse the 588,000 co-operative depositors, just to mislead Gopeng voters to vote for the MCA.
If we read the Government White Paper, we will find that MCA leaders are mentioned all over the report about their role in the $1.5 billion co-operative finance scandal. We just take the case of KOMUDA. The White Paper reported that:
(1) KOMUDA Board of Directors gave $1 million advance to former MCA President Tan Koon Swan to purchase Grand United Holdings shares, and this advance had not yet been recovered;
(2) Komuda advanced $350,000 to its subsidiary company to acquire another batch of Grand United Holdings from a company in which Tan Koon Swan had substantial ownership;
(3) KOMUDA paid $1.1 million to acquire Supreme shares;
(4) KOMUDA gave out loans amounting to $15.5 million, 60 per cent of which want to three individuals;
(5) At 8th August 1986, $1 million of loans and directors were given out to KOMUDA directors.
(6) MCA Youth Leader, Kee Yong Wee and Deputy Minister, Wang Choon Wing, are members of the MOMUDA Board which made the above decisions.
Would Lee Kim Sai make it clear to Tan Koon Swan, Kee Yong Wee and Wang Choon Wing, that by May 16, they must either repay their loans or reimburse KOMUDA for the losses suffered, so that the KOMUDA depositors can get more of their monies back?
Today, we read in the press that Malaysian Resources Corporation Bhd. (MRCB) of which Kee Yong Wee was one-time Chairman, stunned the business community when in reporter d $48.6 million pre-profit loss for 1986, compared to its reported profit of $5 million in 1985.
The 40,000 KOMUDA depositors would remember that in early 1986, KOMUDA entered into an agreement with Kee Chan Holdings Sdn. Bhd. (which was controlled by Kee Yong Wee) to buy 40 million shared of Malaysian Resources Corporation Bhd. (MRCB) for $34.4 million at 86 cents per share, when the market price was 52 cents.
The Bank Negara freeze of KOMUDA and 22 other co-operatives on August 8 aborted the deal, although by them, KOMUDA had paid about 86 million for the MRCB shared. Had the Malaysian Resources deal of KOMUDA gone through, KOMUDA would not only have paid $13 million higher than the market value, but would have been landed today with a Malaysian Resources which suffered a pre-tax loss of $48.6 million for last year?
In the White Paper, Kee Yong Wee defended the KOMUDA-Malaysian Resources deal, claiming that the ‘net tangible assets of MRCB … at thatht time was 86 cents per share”. Yesterday, Malaysian Resources’s share price stood at 37 cents.
Although the 40 million Malaysian Resources shares deal was aborted, nobody knows whether Kee Chan Holdings Sdn. Bhd. Had repaid KOMUDA the $6 million it had received. Can Lee Kim Sai enlighten the public on this matter, as one og the MCA leaders are involved in it.?
Is Lee Kim Sai and MCA prepared to demand the government to freeze the assets of all MCA leaders and members who did not repay loans form co-operatives or reimburse losses they had caused to the co-operatives because of their failure to perform their duties as directors or officials of co-operatives?
Is Lee Kim Sai, for instance, prepared to demand that Kee Yong Wee and Wang Choon Wing should have their asswets frozen until they had made good the losses suffered by KOMUDA due to their negligence or irresponsibility as KOMUDA directors?
The 588,000 co-operative depositors are not surprised that MCA dare not champion the rights of the depositors in Cabinet, because UMNO Ministers can always turn around and blame the MCA leaders and members for creating the $1.5 billion co-operative Finance Scandal.