By Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary – General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Monday, 22nd April 1991:
Call on Liong Sik to explain whether the season for the MCA ban on its members from participating in any Kelantan State Committee is because the Chinese in Kelantan are being oppressed and forced to leave the state?
MCA President, Datuk Dr.Ling Liong Sik, yesterday reiterated that no MCA member would be allowed to participate in any of the Kelantan State Government committee, and the two Kelantanese, Khoo Beng Ee and Han Hip Kuan, who had been appointed to the Kelantan State Committee on non-Muslim affairs, are being threatened with expulsion from MCA.
Liong Sik should make clear the reason for the MCA leadership’s ban on any MCA member frpm participating in any Kelantan State Government Committee. It is because the Chinese in Kelantan are being oppressed by the Kelantan State Government, and being forced to leave the state, as announced by the MCA President in Johore Bahru recently?
As a political leader, Liong Sik must have the courage of his convictions to declare the real reason for his actions. It the reason foe the MCA leadership’s tough stand banning any MCA from participating in any Kelantan State Government Committee is because the Chinese in Kelantan are being oppressed and forced to leave the state, then this will be very valid and powerful reason – and the DAP will also express our support.
However, is this the reason?
It is very significant that there has been deafening silence from Liong Sik to my proposal for the establishment of a Public Inquiry into his allegation that the Chinese in Kelantan had been oppressed by the Kelantan State Government and are being forced to leave the state.
I would have imagined Liong Sik would have jumped at the opportunity and immediately declared his agreement to a Public Inquiry.
The silence of Liong Sik could only mean that he has no confidence whatsoever that he could produce any ^ of evidence to substantiate his allegation that the Chinese in Kelantan had been oppressed and being forced to leave the state.
Would Liong Sik be ^ as Transport Minister if MCA members sit on Kelantan State Government Committee?
If Liong Sik could not produce proof to substantiate his allegation, then he should be responsible enough to apologise and publicly his allegation that the Chinese in Kelantan had been oppressed and being forced to leave the State.
If Liong Sik could not prove his allegation that the Chinese in Kelantan are being oppressed and forced to leave the state then what is the reason for the MCA’s ban on any MCA member from participating in any Kelantan State Government Committee?
In his statement yesterday, Liong Sik said that the MCA would not fall into the Kelantan government’s sinister attempt to play the divide-and-rule game with the Barisan National. He said: “We will stick with our friends through thick and thin.”
Unless Liong Sik could prove his Johore Bahru statement that the Chinese in Kelantan are being oppressed and forced to leave the state explanation of his has no meaning.
Is Liong Sik trying to say that if the MCA leadership had not imposed a ban on its members from participating in any Kelantan State Government committee, MCA would have incurred the wrath of UMNO, and Liong Sik’s own position in the Cabinet and Government might be in jeopardy? Is Liong Sik afraid that he would be sacked as Transport Minister if MCA members sit on Kelantan State Government committees?
If this is the case, then is not a question of ‘sticking with our friends through thick and thin’ but ‘following the master through hell or high water!’
This would mean that in making its decision, Liong Sik and the MCA leadership was not taking into consideration the interests of the Chinese in Kelantan, but their own political interest to remain in Cabinet and Government!