Why is Liong Sik and Keng Yaik so quiet about the issue of a second Deputy Prime Minister?

Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General, and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, at the Joint DAP-Semangat 46 ceramah held at Ampang Jaya new village on Friday, 17th August, 1990 at 8 pm.

Why is Liong Sik and Keng Yaik so quiet about the issue of a second Deputy Prime Minister?

It is four days since the Semangat 46 President, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, made the statement that he has no objections to a Chinese being appointed as a second Deputy Prime Minister.

However, both the MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik and the Gerakan President, Datuk
Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, had kept very quiet on the issue of the second Deputy Prime Minister.

The response had come from the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, and the
Education Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, who had both attacked the proposal, just as UMNO and UMNO Youth vehemently attacked the proposal in the 1980s when the MCA Youth asked for a second Deputy Prime Minister to be appointed from the MCA.

The people have a right to know what is the stand of MCA and Gerakan on the issue of a second
Deputy Prime Minister. Is the attack by Dr. Mahathir and Anwar on Tengku Razaleigh’s statement indication that the MCA and Gerakan are both opposed to the idea of a Chinese being appointed as a second Deputy Prime Minister?

How can Anwar be expected to be a fair Chairman of the Consultative Council on Education Bill when
he is launching ferocious and even baseless attacks on the Opposition parties?

Yesterday, in Bachok, the Education Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, launched a ferocious and as usual
baseless attack on the Opposi¬tion parties.

How can Anwar be expected to be a fair Chairman of the Consultative Council on Education Bill when
he is so ‘politicising’ the Education Bill and the education question?

If Anwar wants to consult the views of the Opposition parties, then he must have an open mind and respect the views of the Opposition parties, even if he cannot agree with them.

If Anwar has a closed mind, and is already going round the country attacking the Opposition parties
on their stand on the Education Bill, then what is there for Anwar to consult the Opposition about?

The highly antagonistic public stance of Anwar Ibrahim only reinforces general reservations about the bona fides of the Cabinet in forming the Consultative Council on Education Bill.

Anwar Ibrahim should explain why he did not set up the Consultaltive Council on the Education Bill
right at the beginning of the process to draft a new education law, instead of setting up such Council
after the Government had failed to present the Bill to Parliament as promised.

Anwar Ibrahim must be the first Education Minister in the world who sets up a Consultative Council
on the Education Bill when the whole Bill is almost completed, instead of right from the very beginning.

What is the reason for this? Is it because Anwar wants to get into the Guinness Book of Records?
The only rational explanation is that Anwar does not want to make public the contents of the
Education Bill 1990 before the general elections.