Part II of Speech of Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tnajung, Lim Kit Siang, at the Kepala Batas DAP Branch Anniversary Dinner held on Sunday, March 4, 1990 at 8 p.m.
Gooi Hock Seng to ‘adopt’ the MCA Presidency because of Datuk Ling Liong Sik’s utter inability to make any headway in resolving the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment issue
Today, the MCA Ministers and Deputy Ministers started their so-called tours of the DAP Parliamentary constituencies which MCA claims to have ‘adopted’.
This is most laughable, as MCA leaders and Ministers have failed miserably to discharge their promises and responsibilities to the people and broken the political trust of the people – not to mention the criminal breach of trust committed by so many top MCA leaders!
After four long years, the people are still waiting for the fulfilment of the MCA pledge in the 1986 general elections for the repeal of Section 21(2) of the 1961 Education Act. MCA members themselves are waiting for the government recognition of the degrees and qualifications of Tunku Abdul Rahman College. The voters of Kuala Lipis are waiting for the MCA to honourable men! The 600,000 depositors who trusted MCA leaders and put their hard-earned savings in MCA co-operative finance companies have still not recovered from their losses caused by the criminal breach of trust of MCA leaders.
In fact, if anyone’s post or responsibility should be ‘adopted’, it should be the post of the MCA Presidency, and the most suitable person to ‘adopt’ the MCA Presidency is the DAP MP for Bukit Bendera, Sdr. Gooi Hock Seng, who has won such a great constitutional victory for all Malaysians in the Susie Teoh case in the Supreme Court establishing the fundamental rights of all Malaysian parents to the unfettered control, custody and guardianship of their children below 18 years, and to decide on their religion.
As MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik could do absolutely nothing to solve the issue which is solely the creation of the eight Selangor MCA Assemblymen.
All that Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik could do was to stage the farce of the eight Selangor MCA State Assemblymen threatening to resign collectively if the Enactment is not amended, but when the UMNO Baru leaders showed that they have bigger muscles and louder voice, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik and the eight Selangor MCA Assemblymen quickly and meekly backed down and swallowed their threats!
Shallow reaction by Liong Sik and Kim Sai
After the landmark judgement of the Supreme Court in the Susie Teoh case, all that Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik could do was to say two words: “Thank God”. He and other MCA leaders like his Deputy President, Lee Kim Sai, immediately claimed that the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment issue has been ‘completely resolved’, while trying to strike the posture as if they had somehow heroically resolved the issue themselves!
This is a very shallow reaction, for despite the landmark Susie Teoh judgment by the Supreme Court, the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment issue cannot be ‘fully involved’ unless and until sections 67 and 70 of the Selangor Enactment had been repealed or suitably amended.
So long as these two sections are still part of the law passed by the Selangor State Assembly, anyone who is involved in the conversion to Islam of non-Muslim minors without parental knowledge or consent can claim that he is legally acting under the authority of the Selangor Enactment.
Suggestion to Gooi Hock Seng to send a simple paper to advice his ‘adopted’ MCA President on the step-by-step process to fully resolve the Selangor Enactment issue
Furthermore, nobody can accept that the Selangor Enactment issue has been ‘fully resolved’ if the affected parents who take the cases to court can win the legal battle, but cannot get their daughters back, whether in the case of Susie Teoh or in the current case of 15-year-old Ooi Kim Hooi, whose parents are still finding for her after more than three months.
How could a 15-year-old in a country which upholds law and order disappear from the family into thin air, without any trace by the authorities? How can Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik be comfortable as the senior MCA Minister in Government when Malaysia has degenerated to such a situation?
A responsible MCA President would not have reacted to the Susie Teoh judgement of Supreme Court in the way Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik had done, which was to say teo words “Thank God”, and claimed that the whole Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment problem had been resolved. In fact, if Liong Sik wanted to thank anyone for the Susie Teoh case, he should thank Gooi Hock Seng and DAP for fighting it all the way to the Supreme Court all these five years- despite MCA sabotage of our efforts all the time!
A responsible MCA President, on hearing the Susie Teoh judgment of the Supreme Court, would have initiated the machinery and process to fully resolve the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment issue by getting the two sections of 67 and 70 repealed or suitably amended in the next meeting of the Selangor Assembly next month.
MCA can only destroy or lose away the fundamental rights of the people, which have to be restored by the DAP
It is shocking that it is necessary to point out to Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik how as MCA President, he should be handling the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment issue. I am suggesting to Gooi Hock Seng that he should ‘adopt’ the MCA Presidency, and ‘guide’ the MCA President as to the steps he should take to get the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment issue fully resolved.
I am also suggesting to Gooi Hock Seng that he prepare a simple paper and send it to the MCA Presient as to step-by-step process that is needed to fully resolve the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment issue.
The MCA, with all their Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Parliamentary Secretaries, Senators, State Executive Councillors can only destroy or lose away the fundamental rights of the people, even those provided in the Constitution, as the freedom of religion and the basic parental rights of unfettered control, custody and guardianship over their own childen. It is the DAP which had to struggle to regain and restore these rights destroyed or lost by the MCA – as in the Susie Teoh case!
Liong Sik should resign as MCA President if the Selangor Assembly does not repeal or suitably amend Sections 67 and 70 of the Selangor Islamic Administration Enactment next month
The DAP has given the MCA a great help that the DAP has given in the Susie Teoh judgment to resolve the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment issue. If the MCA needs any other help or advice, we ready to continue to give it freely.
However, if despite the great help that the DAP has given in the Susie Teoh judgment, the MCA cannot resolve the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment by getting the Selangor State Assembly to repeal or suitably amend Sections 67 and 70 in next month’s State Assembly, then Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik should resign as MCA President.
For this can only mean that the MCA Presidency is a irredee-able and condemned post, and cannot be saved or restructured by whoever ‘adopts’ it to become a politically creative, constructive or useful political office.