by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary- General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Tuesday, 7th May 1991:
Liong Sik should ask the ‘top UMNO leaders’ who had ‘discussed, understood and accepted’ the Malaysian Chinese Cultural City proposal to issue a directive to stop all other UMNO leaders from issuing any more statement before it gets beyond the control of MCA leadership.
I had warned the MCA President, Datuk Ling Liong Sik, yesterday that if he does not want the Malaysian Chinese Cultural City controversy to get out of hand, and to put an immediate end to the controversy created by narrow- minded political leaders looking for issues to inflate themselves as ‘communal’ or ‘cultural heroes’, he should formally submit the proposal to the Cabinet tomorrow for official approval and make a public announcement of it.
This is because Liong Sik has claimed that the Malaysian Chinese Cultural City proposal had been ‘discussed, understood and accepted’ by top UMNO and Barisan Nasional leaders and if this is true, there should be no difficulty in getting Cabinet approval tomorrow.
If there is any further delay, as for instance for another week, it becomes questionable whether the top UMNO and Barisan Nasional leaders who are supposed to have ‘discussed, understood and accepted’ the Malaysian Chinese Cultural City proposal could be found!
I hope the MCA President and the MCA leadership will heed by warning that unless firm and immediate action is taken to get the highest political approval for the Malaysian Chinese Cultural City, i.e. Cabinet endorsement tomorrow, then there is a great likelihood that the MCA’s Malaysian Chinese Cultural City proposal will die a stillbirth!
This is because from past MCA record, the people will see the repeat of another oft- staged MCA episode, where MCA leaders will back down when pressures mount, in particular from the UMNO and UMNO Youth leaders.
Already, big UMNO names are lining up to publicly declare their opposition to the MCA’s Malaysian Chinese Cultural City proposal. The
UMNO Secretary- General, Datuk Mohamed Rahmat, heads the roster, with the UMNO Youth leader and Defence Minister, Datuk Najib Tun Razak, and UMNO National Vice President and Foreign Minister, Datuk Abdullah Badawi, and the UMNO Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Datuk Sabarrudin Cik, having declared their public position opposing the Malaysian Chinese Cultural City.
The reasons that have been advanced by the UMNO Ministers are completely unacceptable. If Liong Sik is telling the truth when he said that top UMNO and Barisan National leaders had ‘discussed, understood and accepted’ the Malaysian Chinese Cultural City proposal, then he should get in touch with these unnamed ‘top UMNO leaders’ to issue a directive to all UMNO Ministers, leaders and branches to stop making public statement on the issue before it completely goes beyond the control of the MCA leadership.