DAP leadership clears Lim Hock Seng of Barisan Nasional allegations that he had abused his position as elected representative for his own direct pecuniary interest

Speech (Part 2) by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, at the DAP pre-Prai by-election meeting at Butterworth on Sunday, June 23, 1991 at 11 a.m.

DAP leadership clears Lim Hock Seng of Barisan Nasional allegations that he had abused his position as elected representative for his own direct pecuniary interest

The DAP leadership has received and considered the explanations by DAP Assemblyman for Mak Mandin,
Sdr.Lim Hock Seng, with regard to allegations by Penang Barisn Nasional leaders and component parties that he had abused his position as elected representative for his own direct pecuniary interest.

Penang Deputy Chief Minister and UMNO State Secretary, Dr.Ibrahim Saad spearheaded these allegations when Sdr.Lim moved a motion last Tuesday calling on the State Government to help regularise and legalise the illegal factories in the state which do not cause environmental pollution or pose a danger to nearby residents.

Gerakan National Publicity bureau chief and Exco member, Dr.Kang Chin Seng, fully backed Dr.Ibrahim’s allegations and demanded that Sdr.Lim Hock Seng should quit his Mak Mandin seat.

The implication of Dr.Ibrahim Sadd and Dr.Kang Chin Seng’s allegations against Sdr.Lim Hock Seng are based on the premise that Sdr.Lim had moved the motion not for the sake of the 250-odd illegal factories in the state, but for his own illegal factory.

After considering Sdr.Lim’s explanations, the DAP leadership cleared Lim Hock Seng and dismissed the allegations by Deputy Chief Minister Dr.Ibrahim Saad and Gerakan Exco member Dr,Kang Chin Seng that Sdr.Lim Hock Seng had abused his position as elected representative for his own direct pecuniary interest for the following reasons:

Firstly, the motion to legalise and regularise the illegal factories was not moved by Sdr.Lim Hock Seng on his own decision, but was the result of the decision of a meeting of Penang DAP Assemblyman.

Before, the June 17 Penang Assembly session, a meeting of Penang DAP Assemblymen was held to discuss and decide on the issues that should be highlighted and the questions and motions that should be submitted for the Assembly.

One of the issues which the Penang DAP Assemblymen took a serious view was the position of the illegal factories in the State, following nation-wide concern after the Sungai Buloh fireworks factory explosion disaster which killed 24, injured some 100 and destroyed or damaged 150 houses.

Or do they think that Lim Hock Seng had committed a greater political, financial and moral scandal than Tan Sri Osman Aroff, and that Lim Hock Seng must resign from his seat to allow for a by-election. But not Tan Sri Osman Aroff?

Or do they believe that it is only natural for Barisan Nasional leaderships to be involved in political financial and moral scandal?

It is the three Barisan Nasional ‘doctors’ who started the controversy in Penang about the standards expected of elected representatives of the people.

This controversy has taken a turn where it is not Lim Hock Seng who is in the dock, but the three Barisan Nasional ‘doctors’ who are in ye dock of public opinion to justify their double standards about public integrity of political leaders especially these in Government.

If the three Barisan Nasional ‘doctors’ can condone the scandal of Tan Sri Osman Aroff in the Malacca ammunition dump scandal, what moral right do they have to talk about public integrity and political morality?

In refusing to take a clear-cut stand on Tan Sri Osman Aroff because of his role in the Malacca ammunition depot scandal, the three Barisan Nasional ‘doctors’ have turned themselves into a great political and moral scandal in Penang.