Press Conference Statement by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Penang on Thursday, 4th July 1991 at 11.30 a.m.
Challenge to the three Barisan Nasional ‘doctors’ to declare whether they would support the call for the resignation of Tan Sri Osman Aroff as Kedah Mentri Besar and Assemblyman?
In the latest issue of Watan (3rd July), the Gerakan National Publicity Bureau Chief and Exco Member, Dr. Kang Chin Seng, challenged the DAP to establish an inquiry into the allegation by the three Barisan Nasional ‘doctors’ that DAP Assemblyman for Mak Mandin, Lim Hock Seng, had abused his position as an elected representative for his direct pecuniary interest.
Dr. Kang is still doing his utmost in his effort to make the Lim Hock Seng issue into the No. 1 political, financial and moral scandal in Penang although he and the other two Barisan Nasional ‘doctors’ could not produce one iota of evidence to substantiate their allegation against Hock Seng.
The three Barisan Nasional ‘doctors’ are great actors, for they could pretend to see a great political, financial and moral scandal in the Lim Hock Seng issue when Hock Seng had done nothing wrong and there is absolutely nothing in their allegation.
The three Barisan Nasional ‘doctors’ suffer from a special kind of blindness
But these three Barisan Nasional ‘doctors’ also suffer from a special kind of blindness which normally afflict those in power, who are totally blind to the real big political, financial and moral scandals in Malaysia and in Penang in particular.
The three Barisan Nasional ‘doctors’ want Lim Hock Seng to resign when he had done nothing wrong, but what is their stand on the Kedah Mentri Besar, Tan Sri Osman Aroff, who had been exposed by the Defence Minister, Datuk Najib Tun Razak, as being responsible together with Abdullah Ang for the $71 million ammunition depot scandal in Malacca?
Would the three Barisan Nasional ‘doctors’ join the DAP in calling on Tan Sri Osman Aroff to bear full personal responsibility for the losses suffered by the Federal Government because of the Malacca ammunition depot scandal?
Would the three Barisan Nasional ‘doctors’ support the call for the resignation of Tan Sri Osman Aroff as Kedah Mentri Besar and even as Assemblyman, because of his role in the $71 million Malacca ammunition depot scandal?
According to the OPP2, the mean monthly household income for an average Indian family in 1990 is $1,201. This means that what an average Indian family in Malaysia earns in one year is what Datuk Samy Vellu throws away in expensive clothing every two or three days!
Is Datuk Samy Vellu going to honour his undertaking to quit as MIC President as the NEP had failed to benefit the Indians as a whole in the past 20 years?
DAP will face great odds and handicaps in the Prai by-election. Financially, the DAP will be very hard pressed. Although the DAP’s election expenditure is only a small fraction of the Barisan Nasional election expenses, Penang DAP is still paying its general elections debts.
Penang DAP has virtually no money to fight the Prai by-election and we will have to depend on public support.
Be that as it may, the DAP in Penang, and particularly in Prai, must start to prepare for the by-election. We must be guided by the spirit that whatever the difficulties and handicaps in the by-election, our motto must be to fight to win.
For the purpose of the Prai by-election, the DAP has appointed Sdr. Gooi Hock Seng, DAP MP for Bukit Bendera and Penang State Secretary, as the Chairman of the DAP Prai by-election committee, and appointed Sdr. Ahmad Nor, National Vice Chairman and MP for Bayan Baru and Sdr. P. Patto, Deputy Secretary-General, to each head a task force to woo the Malay and Indian voters in Prai.