Press Statement by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Thursday, 23.4.1987:
Lim Kit Siang to wait for Dr. Ling Liong Sik at the Ipoh ceramah of co-operative depositors at Wisma Chin Woo on Saturday, April 25
I must confess that I cannot understand the inconsistencies and illogic of the MCA and its leaders.
As the MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik, had the ‘courage’ to publicly request that the DAP five the MCA a walk-over in Gopeng by-election, I had responded by declaring the DAP’s preparedness to give Datuk Dr. Ling’s request serious consideration provided the MCA could give convincing grounds why the MCA should get such a walk-over.
I invited Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik to attend the Ipoh public meeting of co-operative depositors at Wisma Chin Woo on Saturday, April 25 at 8 p.m. to publicly list out the grounds why the DAP should give the MCA a walk-over in Gopeng.
I had expected Datuk Dr. Ling and the MCA leadership to give a response to show that they have good grounds for asking for a walk-over in Gopeng from DAP, but instead, I was the subject of multiple attacks. Datuk Dr. Ling accused me of ‘politiking’, MCA Deputy Secretary-General Woon See Chin attacked me for ‘political gimmick’, while the political secretary to the Minister of Health, accused me of denying the Gopeng voters the right to decide who should be the Gopeng MP.
They seemed to have forgotten that it was Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik who openly asked the DAP to give the MCA a walk-over in Gopeng!
I must ask Datuk Dr. Ling whether he was serious or was only ‘politiking’ or political gimmicry’ when he asked the DAP to give the MCA a walk-over in Gopeng, or is it because he came under attack by the other MCA leaders for making such a stupid statement that there is such varied, contradictory and insensible reactions from the MCA on one issue?
Or is Datuk Dr. Ling or the other MCA leaders denying the truth of my statement, that it has become second nature for MCA to beg for political favours from UMNO instead of standing up on their own political honour, principle and convictions? I had said that in the last general elections, the three top MCA leaders, Tan Koon Swan, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik and Datuk Lee Kim Sai had competed with each other to get the ‘safest’ and ‘easiest’ parliamentary seats to contest, where the Chinese voter-percentage is the lowest-possible? Can MCA prove me wrong?
Can Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik answer the three following questions:
(1) Why did he abandon Bagan parliamentary seat, with a Chinese electorate of 65%,
Labis, Johore, where the Chinese electorate represented only 46%? Is this the way for a MCA leader to ‘champion’ and ‘represent’ the Malaysian Chinese?
(2) If Datuk Dr. Ling must stand in Johore, why did he choose Labis where the Chinese electorate is the lowest for all the Johore MCA parliamentary seats, instead of seats where the Chinese electorate has a higher percentage?
(3) why is it that in the last general elections in August 1986, the three top MCA leaders, Tan Koon Swan, Ling Liong Sik and Lee Kim Sai all dared not contest in a parliamentary constituency where there is at least 50 per cent Chinese voter percentage?
These are very important three questions, for they affect the honour, credibility and authority of the MCA leaders, who claim to be the sole representative and champion of the five million Malaysian Chinese.
If Datuk Dr. Ling and MCA leaders dare not answer these three questions, is there any wonder that not only the five million Malaysian Chinese have no respect, faith or trust in the MCA leaders, but that UMNO leaders have no high opinion or regard for them as well?
However, I reiterate my stand that the DAP is prepared to seriously consider Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik’s request for a walk-over for MCA in Gopeng, provided Datuk Dr. Ling could convince the DAP that there are good and powerful grounds for such a request.
I will wait for Datuk Dr. Ling at the Ipoh ceramah of co-operative depositors at Wisma Chin Woo on Saturday, April 25, 1987, at 8 p.m., and hope that as he had the ‘courage’ to ask for a walk-over for MCA in Gopeng, he also has the ‘courage’ to come to Wisma Chin Woo in Ipoh to publicly state the grounds for such a request.
I note that Datuk ling has said that he was prepared to discuss any matter of common interest, including the co-operative issue and the Gopeng by-election, with me, and if this is the case, then let us meet at Wisma Chinwoo in Ipoh on Saturday night. I can assure Datuk Dr. Ling that he would be accorded full courtesy at the Wisma Chinwoo, for I am sure the public would like to know what are the grounds for the unprecedented and unusual MCA request to the DAP for a walk-over in the Gopeng by-election.
Although Datuk Dr. Ling would be tempted, or preasured by the other MCA leaders, to publicly state his refusal to attend Ipoh meeting at Wisma Chinwoo on Saturday, I would urge him to act with the courage and conviction as befitting a honourable, self-confident and principled MCA leader, and turn up at Wisma Chinwoo on Saturday. Regardless of what he may say about not attending the Ipoh meeting on Saturday, let me tell him that I will definitely be waiting for him, and I have no doubt that the public would also be waiting for him in Ipoh on Saturday night.
Why the Prime Minister has not declassified the documents on the UMBC shares scandal, the Maminco Scandal, EPF/ Makuwasa/shares scandal, Sports Toto privatization scandal?
The Prime Minister’s Department declassified and make public certain documents pertaining to the Proton Saga, Mayabumi, Penang Bridge projects and the Kampong Memali Tragedy.
The selective declassification and release of documents on the three controversial projects of proton Sage, Dayabumi and Penang Bridge have not significantly answered public queries about these issues, in particular with regard to the award of contracts and tenders. Why is it the Government had not declassified and made public all documents relating to these three projects, especially as there are serious allegations about improprieties and abuses of power in the award of multi-million dollar contracts and tenders?
Another question Malaysians are asking is why the Government has not offered to declassify and release documents relating to other controversies and scandals, like the UMBC shared scandal involving the purchase and subsequent resale by the family companies of Daim Zainuddin; the Maminco mysterious tin-buying scandal; the EPF scandals in the Makuwasa affair as well as in its foray into the shares market to jack uip share prices by buying non-trustee stocks; and the Sports Toto Act is being used, not to protect the national interests of the nation, but as a political instrument of the ‘powers that be’.