Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, at the meeting of the Perak DAP Defend Four Win Six Task Force held in Taiping on Saturday, 23rd June 1990 at 6 p.m.
I now feel free to reveal nature of the secret Kamunting talks between Ooi Ean Kwong and me on 8th December 1988 anytime I wish
My five-day ultimatum to the Penang Speaker, Datuk Ooi Ean Kwong, to deny the version given by Gerakan President, Datuk Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, of the secret Kamunting talks between both of us is up, and there is no response from Ean Kwong.
I now feel free to reveal the nature of the secret Kamunting talks between Ooi Ean Kwong and me on 8th December 1988 anytime I wish.
I had never mentioned in my speeches or statements that there had been a secret meeting between Ooi Ean Kwong and myself when I was in detention under the Internal Security Act, for I respect the confidentiality of such meetings.
Unfortunately, the Gerakan President, Datuk Dr. Lim Keng Yaik had violated its confidentiality by giving a totally false and untrue version of it on 10th June 1990, when he claimed that he had sent Ean Kwong to see me in Kamunting ‘to ask whether I needed Gerakan help to secure my release, and to advise me not to waste my time in the Opposition and to join the Barisan Nasional’.
Despite such lies by Keng Yaik, I was still prepared to respect the confidentiality of the Kamunting talks if Ean Kwong was prepared to state that the version given by Keng Yaik was untrue and a sheer fabrication. I gave him two chances to do so, the first time in the Penang State Asembly on June 11 (for which, he got me suspended from the Penang Assembly), and the second time, when I gave him a five-day ultimatum to deny Keng Yaik’s version of the Kamunting talks.
Ooi Ean Kwong came to visit me at Kamunting on December 8, 1988 purportedly over the report of the Penang State Assembly Standing Committee on Land, but really on the directive of Keng Yaik – though not for the purpose for which Keng Yaik had claimed.
I am very disappointed that the Gerakan President and Primary Industry Minister, Datuk Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, is telling lies after lies, from the secret DAP-PAS Jakarta talks to the secret Kamunting talks. The differences was that there was no secret Jakarta talks, while there were secret Kamunting talks, except that they were not about what Keng Yaik had claimed. I am not surprised that Keng Yaik is now claiming that as a Minister, he has a constitutional right to lie.