By Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Saturday, November 16, 1991:
What is the use of Clause 6.15 in the MCA constitution on ‘preserving and sustaining the use and study of Chinese language’ when MCA leaders have made the concession that the existence of the Chinese primary schools has no constitutional right, basis or guarantee?
As in now the wont in the MCA ‘all-out war’ against the DAP, the MCA national leadership is orchestrating an all out attack on me by MCA national, state and even local leaders on the ground that I had ‘broken paragraph and distorted’ the speech of MCA Deputy President, Datuk Lee Kim Sai, when I said his speech in Bukit Mertajam early this week was one of the greatest concession of the MCA in its 42-year history.
I have openly said that I am prepared to publicly apologise to Datuk Lee Kim Sai and the MCA leaders of they could prove that I had ‘broken paragraph and distorted’ what Kim Sai said in Bukit Mertajam, and I am still waiting for such proof.
If the MCA leaders are right, it should be the easiest thing in the world to prove that I had ‘broken paragraph and distorted’ Kim Sai. If the MCA leaders still do not know how to prove that I had ‘broken paragraph and distorted’ Kim Sai, I prepared to give them free advise.
All that Kim Sai and the MCA leadership need to do are three things:
For Kim Sai to declare that in his speech in Bukit Mertajam, he never said that the existence of Chinese primary schools has no constitutional basis or guarantee.
For Kim Sai and the MCA Persident, Datuk Ling Liong Sik to declare that the MCA leadership had in the past, at present and for the future, will always maintain that the existence of the Chinese primary schools is protected and guaranteed by Article 152 of the Malaysian Constitutional: and
For Kim Sai or Liong Sik to make a Public commitment that the MCA leadership will never make a concession that the existence of Chinese primary schools has no constitutional right, basis or guarantee.
Surely, it should not be difficult for Liong Sik and Kim Sai to say these three things if the MCA leaders disagree with my statement that they have made the greatest concession in the 42-year party history with the Lee Kim Sai announcement in Bukit Mertajam that the existence of Chinese primary schools has no constitutional basis or guarantee.
What is most noteworthy in the stataement issued by the MCA leaders, including Kim Sai, in the last few days claiming that I had ‘broken paragraph and distorted’ the new stand of the MCA leadership is the not a single MCA leaders had come out forthrightly to declare that the MCA leadership had never made the concession that Chinese primary schools have no constitutional basis or guarantee.
The MCA leaders just poured abuse on me. One MCA national leaders was even so puerile as to declare that the MCA Constitutional has Clause 6.15 on ‘preserving and sustaining the use and study of the Chinese language’ as if this means anything at all.
Liong Sik and the MCA leadership should explain what is the use of having Clause 6.15 in the CMA Constitution on ‘preserving and sustaining the use and study of the Chinese language’ when the MCA leaders have made the great concession that the existence of the Chinese primary schools have no constitutional right, basis or guarantee?
Are the MCA leaders seriously claiming that Clause 6.15 of the MCA Party Constitution is higher and more important than Article 152 of the Malaysian Constitution?
If the MCA leaders must make one concession either between Clause 6.15 of MCA Constitution or Article 152 of the Malaysian Constitution, they can sacrifice Clause 6.15 of the MCA Constitution but they should not sacrifice the right and guarantee to Chinese primary schools as provided by Article 152 of the Malaysian Constitution.