by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Wednesday, 28th March 1990:
Call on MCA delegates who have a sense of justice to requisition an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to direct the MCA Central Committee to support the block sale of the 147.98 million MPHB shares at premium price
At his press conference after my meeting with him at the MCA Headqyarters yesterday was called off, MCA President, Datuk Dr.Ling Liong Sik, delcared that the MCA would not object if the 50,398 KSM-MPHBIF unitholders decide to sell their 147.98 million MPHB shares en block.
Isn’t it the moral responsibility of the MCA leadership to work out the best deal for the 50,398 unitholders, especially as it was the MCA leadership which was responsible for persuading the unit-holders ten years ago to invest in the KSM-MPHBIF Investment Fund to protect the interests of MCA, KSM and MPHB?
If for ten years, the 50,398 unitholders had loyally looked after the best interests of MCA, KSM and MPHB with their hard-earned life-savings, is it too much to ask the MCA national leadership to reciprocate and look after the best interests of the unitholders. And not just empty talk that the MCA leaders “would not object if unitholders want to sell en bloc”.
DAP presented proposal yesterday to protect the best interests of 50,398 unitholders
A responsible MCA leadership would ensure that steps are taken which enable the 147.98 million MPHB shares to be sold en bloc at premium price. Under the present formula approved by the MCA leadership, the Receivers have no power to sell the 147.98 million MPHB shares en bloc at premium price. This was my proposal which I gave to the MCA President yesterday at the MCA Headquarters.
The meeting yesterday was so chaotic with three MCA official shouting at me at the same time, that it was wrongly reported in today’s press that t had no proposal to the KSM-MPHBIF controversy.
This is incorrect. What actually transpired was that Liong Sik at one stage asked whether I had received any offer to buy the 19.7 per cent stake of the MPHB shares, and I retorted that if I become the MCA President, then I will have such offer. I said I was not in the market for offers to buy the 19.7 per cent stake of the MPHB and that it was ridiculous for Liong Sik to ask whether I had received any offer to buy the 19.7 per cent stake of the MPHB shares.
In his press conference, Liong Sik attacked my sincerity and said he would not want to meet with me anymore. I will have to give careful thought whether I want to meet with him myself, as it was clear from yesterday’s episode that the MCA leaders had planned to break up the meeting without going into the issue of how best to protect the interests of the 50,398 unitholders.
MCA leaders turned my meeting with Liong Sik onto a “free for all” while DAP exercised discipline and decorum
The MCA leaders who attended the meeting with Liong Sik went in to turn it into a bedlam and a “free for all” and at one time, three MCA Rambos, Chua Jui Meng, William Chek and Ong Ka Ting, were shouting at me at the same time. The four DAP leaders went to the MCA Headquarters with the clear intention to discuss the issue of how to protect the best interests of the 50,398 unitholders, and not to engage in a shouting match.
As I told Chua Jui Meng yesterday, if the MCA officials wanted to trade abuses and insults, the DAP can keep them company. The other three DAP leaders who accompanied me, DAP MP for Seputeh, Liew Ah Kim, DAP MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Guan Eng and DAP Malacca Assemblyman Kerk Kim Kock, could have also engaged in a ‘free for all’ and turned the whole meeting into a bigger shouting match.
But that was not the purpose of yesterday’s meeting, which was to discuss the problem of how to get the highest financial returns for the 50,398 unitholders. This was why the three DAP MPs exercised restraint and there was even a press comment that they did not join the fray to provide me with so-called ‘back-up support’.
The DAP approached the meeting at the MCA Headquarters with a completely different attitude from the MCA officials, who to turn it into a ‘free for all’ shouting match and break it up. The DAP wanted to coolly and rationally discuss how the 50,398 unitholders can get the most financial returns. This is why the DAP delegation maintained discipline and decorum unlike the MCA Rambo team.
We had in fact expected the meeting to be a closed-door private one. But when I arrived at the MCA Headquarters, Liong Sik asked for a private meeting where he asked for my views whether the press should be allowed at our meeting.
I said it was OK for me either way. Then Liong Sik said that he had no objections to the presence of the press, indication he would want to have the press around. I then readily agreed as I have nothing to hide.
Now we know why Liong Sik wanted the press to be present, as the MCA leaders wanted to stage a ‘free for all’ shouting session by the MCA Rambos and break-up the meeting on the first of my eight questions to Liong Sik, without getting into the substance of four meeting-the rights of the unitholders.
Liong Sik also discussed the ‘ground rules’ of the meeting, saying that as host he would speak first, asn then it would be my turn. I again readily agreed. But again, it is now clear that Liong Sik had no intention to keep his side of the bargain, and allow me to comment on his opening statement which were full of wild allegations and half-truths for after his speech, he got his MCA Rambos to force a break-up of the meeting on the first of the eight questions itself.
MCA should be ashamed of the unruly behaviour of the MCA Rambos
The MCA leadership should be ashamed of the unruly and indisciplined behaviour of the MCA Rambos, who are not minor party functionaries but include the MCA Deputy Secretary-General and the MCA National Treasurer.
If the MCA leadership is afraid to hear my responses to Liong Sik’s opening remarks, then it should not issue an invitation to me to meet Liong Sik at the MCA Headquarters on how best to protect the interests of the 50,398 unitholders.
Some of the statements made by the MCA leaders yesterday are most shocking and unthinkable. For instance, Liong Sik claimed that KSM Receiver Khoo Eng Choo had told him that he (Eng Choo) had been misreported when he said three companied had shown interest in buying the 19.7 per cent stake of MPHB shares represented by the KSM-MPHBIF. But reporters who were present at Khoo Eng Choo’s press conference two weeks ago distinctly heard Eng Choo making such a statement.
Who is telling the truth? Did Eng Choo deny to Liong Sik as Kiong Sik claimed? This was why I told Liong Sik yesterday that his statement that Eng Choo had denied making such a statement is not good enough, without a public retraction by Eng Choo.
MCA National Treasurer William Chek made a remark which entitles to be the MCA Quote of the Year. He said I should apologise to the Chinese in the world for making statements about the KSM-MPHBIF.
When I asked when the MCA had started to claim that it represents the Chinese in the world, there was no answer either from William Chek or Liong Sik!
We do not want Liong Sik to be a postman, but the MCA national leadership to take a stand
In his press conference yesterday, Liong Sik told reporters that he would forward to Bank Negara and the Receivers my written proposal that the Manager of the KSM-MPHBIF Investment Fund should be empower and entrusted to sell the 147.98 million MPHB shares in one block at premium price after the ‘share-for-share’ exchange.
I said at the meeting before it broke up that the DAP officials had not gone to MCA Headquarters to forward proposals to Liong Sik for him to transmit them to Bank Negara. I said there was no need to make the Transport Minister to be our postman, for we could transmit these proposals ourselves to Bank Negara and the Receivers.
What we wanted from the MCA President was not his postal service, but the MCA’s stand and commitment to support the sale en bloc of the 147.98 million MPHB shares at premium price for the best interests of the 50,398 unitholders and to take the necessary steps accordingly to effect such a block sale.
As the MCA President and the MCA central Committee has refused, for reasons best known to themselves, to act in the best interests for the 50,398 unitholders, MCA delegates who have a sense of justice should requisition an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to direct the MCA Central Committee to give full support for the sale of the 147.98 million MPHB shares en bloc at premium price.