by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, Petaling Jaya on Friday, 23rd March 1990:
Lim Kit Siang accepts the invitation of Liong Sik and agress to meet the MCA President to discuss the best deal for the 50,398 unit-holders of the KSM-MPHBIF
I am accepting the invitation of the MCA President, Datuk Dr.Ling Liong Sik, and agree to meet him to discuss the best deal for the 50,398 unit-holders of the KSM-Multi-Purpose Holding Bhd. Investment Fund (MPHBIF), to ensure that after 10 years of loyalty to the MCA, KSM and MPHB, they get the best price for their investment.
My secretary will contact the office of Datuk Dr.Ling tomorrow to fix the date and time of meeting. For the sake of the rights and interests of the 50,398 KSM-MPHBIF unitholders, I am prepared to meet the MCA President at the MCA Headquarters.
I am surprised that Datuk Dr.Ling said he did not know anything about the three locally-incorporated public-listed companies interested to buy the strategic block of 19.7 per cent stake in the Multi-Purpose Holding Bhd. (MPHB) which the 50,398 unitholders will own after the share-for-share exchange proposed by the receivers.
The MCA President’s denial of knowledge about the three companies interested in the 19.7 per cent MPHB stake is as convincing as the denial by the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Minister that they know the nature of the contents of the eleven Vijandran pornographic videotapes, and the four envelopes of 2,000 photographs and negatives.
It is very sad that instead of ensuring that the 50,398 KSM-MPHBIF unitholders get the best price for the investment they had made tem years ago because of their loyalty to MCA, KSM and MPHB, the MCA leaders are only interested in playing internal MCA politics and will not do their utmost to safeguard the interests of the unit-holders.
The MCA Special Functions Secretary, Ho Keping, for instance, is only interested in scoring political points in the long-running cold war between the Liong Sik and Kim Sai factions in MCA. Similarly, the MCA Youth leader, Datuk Yap Pian Hon, is using the issue to prove that he belongs to the ‘loyalist’ faction of the MCA President, primarily to ensure that he could get re-elected as MCA Youth leader.
The 50,398 KSM-MPHBIF unitholders have suffered enough and it must be the duty of the MCA leaders to ensure that they get the highest possible price for their 19.7 per cent stake in MPHB.
It must be very ironic that it is now the DAP which is championing the cause of the 50,398 KSM-MPHBIF unitholders. DAP is not involved in any manner with the KSM-MPHBIF, but we will defend the rights of everyone, including the ordinary the MCA members, to justice and fair play.
And in this case, it is downright unjust and unfair to give the 147.98 million PMHB shares to the unitholders to redeem their investments on the open market, when the MPHB price is bound to be depressed, instead of selling them in one bloc to fetch the highest possible premium price.
This is why we in the DAP are speaking up for 50,398 KSM-MPHBIF unitholders as the MCA President and the MCA Central Committee do not seem to be bothered if the unitholders suffer further financial losses because of the present formula by the KSM Receivers.
The KSM Receivers, Price Waterhouse, will be going to the Kuala Lumpur High Court on 28th March in the first step of their application to dissolve the Investment Fund, effect the share-for-share exchange, and the distribution of he 147.98 million MPHB shares.
Any meeting between Liong Sik and me on the KSM-MPHBIF issue should therefore be held before March 28.