by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Tuesday, 6th March 1990:
Are the MCA’s four Ministers, six Deputy Ministers and eight Selangor Assemblymen prepared to resign their posts on April 16 if the Selangor State Assembly does not repeal Sections 67 and 70 of the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment that date?
On Sunday, four MCA Ministers, five MCA Deputy Ministers and one Parliamentary Secretary descended on the Kampar parliamentary constituency, proclaiming the MCA’s collective leadership and its “sincere and dedicated service” to the people.
The MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik, said that the MCA was equally committed to social justice, and its difference with the opposition was that the MCA collective leadership “goes about its tasks quietly instead of shouting in the media.”
MCA collective leadership “quietly” selling out fundamental Constitutional rights of the Malaysian Chinese
The people have seen the type of “sincere and dedicated service” provided by the collective MCA leadership by led by Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik, for the best example is the full MCA support given for the passage of the Selangor Islamic Law Administrtion Enactment in the Selangor Assembly on July 19 last year.
The MCA went about its task of supporting the Selangor Islamic Law Administration so “quietly” that if the DAP had not “shouted in the media”, nobody would have realized that the MCA had sold out the fundamental Constitutional right of freedom of religion.
If not for the existence of the DAP vigilantly protecting the people’s rights, and “shouting in the media” if necessary, nobody would know what other basic and fundamental rights and interests of Malaysians in general, and the Chinese community in particular, would have been sacrificed and lost by the MCA collective leadership by now!
For the last eight months, the collective MCA leadershiped by Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik had proved to the Malaysian nation that it is unbelievably weak, ineffective and impotent, for it was unable to do anything to resolve the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment issue.
The collective MCA leadership could easily surrender or destroy the fundamental Constitutional rights of Malaysians, but could not get them restored when this was exposed and admitted publicy.
As a result of the political irresponsibility and its utter lack of principles, the collective MCA leadership has created doubts as to whether Malaysians enjoy the Constitutional rights of unfettered parental control, guardianship and custody of their children who are minors, the freedom to decide their religion, and whether they have legal and Constitutional protection against the forced conversion to Islam of their children below 18 years of age, who are invariably taken away from their parents and homes.
It is the DAP, through Gooi Hock Seng DAP MP for Bukit Bendera, which established clearly and finally that parents have the constitutional right to decide the religion of their children below 18 years in the now landmark Susie Teoh case decided by the Supreme Court last Friday.
This is the best example of what the DAP can do – to defend, protect and restore the fundamental and Constitutional rights of Malaysians – which the entire collective MCA leadership had done and would DAP would never do.
Gooi Hock Seng, who is ‘adopting’ the MCA Presidency’, is prepared to give a free lecture to the collective MCA leadership why the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment is not “fully resolved”
The MCA collective leadership thinks that they have been saved by Gooi Hock Seng and DAP in the Susie Teoh case, and wants the public to believe that the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment issue has been “fully resolved” as a result of the Supreme Court judgment in the Susie Teoh case.
Gooi Hock Seng, who has been appointed by the DAP to ‘adopt’ the MCA Presidency, is prepared to give Ling Liong Sik and the other MCA national leaders a free lecture as to why they are very wrong in thinking that the Susie Teoh case has “fully resolved” the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment issue. (Here, I want to correct one press report and clarify that Gooi Hock Seng has been appointed to ‘adopt’ Ling Liong Sik’s post of MCA President and not to ‘adopt’ his constituency.)
The Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment cannot be “fully resolved” so long as Sections 67 and 70 of the Enactment have not been repealed, or suitably amended.
As Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik talks so much about the “collective MCA leadership”, the MCA President should explain whether the four MCA Ministers, six MCA Deputy Ministers and the eight MCA Selangor Assemblymen would all submit their registrations form the government if the Selangor State Assemly does not repeal or suitably amend Sections 67 and 70 of the Selangor Islamic Administration Law Enactment when it meets on April 16?
The MCA collective leadership should be able to give an answer at the latest when all the MCA Ministers, Deputy Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries go on their next collective tour to the Kota Melaka parliamentary constituency this weekend.