by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Tuesday, September 4, 1990:
Alex Lee should resign as Deputy Minister for breaking his solemn pledge that there would be no tolls at Cheras for at least a year
Look East and emulate the example of Japan is one of the new policies introduced by the Mahathir government.
If the Barisan Nasional government really Look East and follow the example of Japan, the n the Gerakan Deputy Works Minister, Datuk Alex Lee, would have resigned latest on September 1 when the Cheras toll plazas started to impose $1 toll for light vehicles and $2 toll for heavy vehicles.
Alex Lee had publicly given a solemn undertaking to the people in Federal Territory that there would be no tolls at Cheras for at least a year, but has proved to be an empty pledge.
I have no doubt that the Japanese counterpart of Alex Lee, who had given such a public pledge and which proved to be a hollow one, would have immediately tendered his resignation in shame and indignity.
But Alex Lee has no intention of submitting his resignation. Instead, he blames the MCA Ministers for their silence on the issue in the Cabinet.
Alex Lee may be right, that the MCA Ministers had all failed to look after the interests of the people in the Federal Territory by their silence on the issue in the Cabinet, but this does not absolve him from his personal responsibility for failing to honour his solemn public pledge.
Secondly, if the MCA Ministers must be blamed for their silence on the issue in the Cabinet, what about the Gerakan Minister, Datuk Dr. Lim Keng Yaik? Was he equally silent on the issue in the Cabinet? And why didn’t Alex Lee publicly blame Keng Yaik for his silence on the issue in the Cabinet as well?
The only honourable way out for Alex Lee is to submit his resignation, before he takes any other step or make any other statement.
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, said in Malacca yesterday that the Government will not reduce toll charges for the new Jalan Cheras interchanges, and that the decision was final as the rate was reasonable.
He even said that if the motorist think carefully, they would realise that they would save more than $1 in the long run by using the road.
Dr. Mahathir is trying to simplify the whole issue by saying that the toll plazas only impose a toll of $1 on the motorists. In actual fact, it means an extra burden of from $100 to $200 for the 200,000 people in the some 60-odd housing estates in the areas concerned.
Dr. Mahathir is being very unreasonable when he said that the new tolls would not impose financial hardships on the people in the area.
If this is the case, why didn’t Dr. Mahathir impose tolls for the new flyovers built in his own constituency in Kedah, or to impose toll for the stretch of the North-South Highway from his constituency to Kaki Bukit Hitam?
In the 1986 general elections, 124,881 voters in the seven Federal Territory constituencies voted for the Barisan Nasional. If Dr. Mahathir refuses to cancel the Cheras tolls, then these 124,881 voters should reject the Barisan Nasional in the next general elections as a protest.
The 124,881 Barisan Nasional voters in 1986 general elections come from the following constituencies:
Kepong 16,536
Batu 22,262
Titiwangsa 20,976
Bukit Bintang 7,248
Lembah Pantai 21,408
Seputeh 15,789
Sungei Besi 20,662
124,881