By Parliamentary opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Thursday, 27th September 1990:
Ling Liong Sik should answer the following four questions first
MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik, was being cheeky when he invited Sdr. Lee Lam Thye and me to join the MCA.
I have only yesterday submitted parliamentary questions for the Dewan Rakyat meeting beginning on Oct.4, and four questions concern Datuk Dr, Ling Liong Sik.
I suggest that Liong Sik should answer these four questions first:
1. To ask the Prime Minister when the directive was issued to all Cabinet Ministers to divest their shares, the deadline given for the total divestment of the shares, and whether (and if so, why) the Transport Minister and MCA President was given special permission to be exempted from the shares divestment directive with regard to his shareholdings in Bolton Finance (over 5 million shares) and Pyemas Sdn. Bhd. (22,500 shares each for himself and his wife) until they became a public issue in July this year.
2. To ask the Minister of Finance whether the Bank Negara had investigated into a statement by the MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik, in Batu Pahat on July 14 that he actually did not pay for his holding of about 30 per cent shares of Bolton Finance since 1985 until July this year as it was a contrivance to help Tan Sri Lim Thian Leong to circumvent firstly the Bank Negara regulations, and later the laws governing finance companies which prohibit individual ownership in finance companies from exceeding 10 per cent ;and what action the government proposes to take against such illegal circumvention of the laws on financial institutions; and the reasons why Bank Negara allowed Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik to own more than 10 percent share ownership of Bolton Finance.
3. To ask the Prime Minister why the Transport Minister was allowed to continue as Director of money brokerage firm, Pyemas Sdn. Bhd, for five months in 1986 when he was a member of the Cabinet, as according to the Registry of Companies records, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik resigned as director of Pyemas with effect from 6.6.1986, when he had been appointed Transport Minister on 7.1.1986; and what action he proposes to take to live up to the slogan of a ‘clean, effective and trustworthy’ government.
4. To ask the Minister of Trade and Industry why no action had been taken by the Registrar of Companies against Bolton Properties and its directors for criminal breach of trust and offences under the Companies Act in giving a $8.9 million interest-free loan to Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik to acquire 5 million shares of Bolton Finance of which he was director at the relevant date, when under Section 33 of the Companies Act, a company is prohibited from giving a loan to a director or a director of a related company.