by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Wednesday, 22nd January 1992:
Kit Siang calls on MCA and Gerakan leaders to stop treating the Islamisation issue as a political game, and to honestly deal with it as a serious question
I regret the negative attitude of the Gerakan President, Datuk Dr.Lim Keng Yaik, who summarily dismissed my invitation to him to jointly visit Kelantan and meet the Kelantan Menrti Besar, Nik Aziz, to discuss the so-called 62 Islamisation measures of the Pas Kelantan State Government in its first year in office.
Gerakan, like MCA, had been attacking the so-called ’62 Islamisation almost daily in the past few months, wanting to convince everybody in the country that the Chinese in Kelantanm had been friven to great sufferings of ‘deep water and furnace heat’.
In fact, there have been MCA and Gerakan leaders who have even claimed that the Chinese in Kelantan have been so oppressed that some have ran away from Kelantan.
These are very serious allegations which cannot be taken lightly. This is one reason why I had invited the Gerakan President, Datuk Dr.Lim Keng Yaik and the MCA President, Datuk Dr.Ling Liong Sik, to jointly visit Kelantan as well as to meet the Kelantan Mentri Besar.
If the allegations that the Chinese in Kelantan have been so oppressed under the PAS Kelantan Government, and driven into ‘deep waters and furnace heat’, that some Chinese had run away from Kelantan to escape such oppression, then Liong Sik and Keng Yaik join me in the trip toKelantan to collectively verity and confirm this state of affairs.
Why has Keng Yaik let go of such an excellent opportunity to confirm once and for all the allegations that had been made by Gerakan and MCA about the oppressive rule of the PAS Kelantan State Government?
Is it because Keng Yaik is not confident that he would be able to prove that the Chinese in Kelantan had been plunged into sufferings of ‘deep waters and furnace heat’ and driven to such desperate straits that some Chinese have run away from Kelantan?
I will earnestly call on the MCA and Gerakan leaders to stop treating the Islamisation issue as a political game, and to honestly deal with it as a serious question.
How can MCA and Gerakan claim that they are honest, principled and responsible political parties if they support Islamisation measures provided they come from UMNO but oppose them if they come from PAS?
Can Liong Sik and Keng Yaik answer the simple question whether MCA and Gerakan will oppose Islamisation measures detrimental to non-Muslim Malaysian rights and interests whether they come from PAS or UMNO?
MCA and Gerakan leaders should stop its double-standards of supporting Islamisation measures so long as they come from UMNO but opposing them if they come from PAS.
This is not only politically most dishonest, but a great disservice to the entire nation-building process to create a united and harmoious multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious nation.
I invite the MCA and Gerakan leaders to join the DAP leaders in taking a responsible and honest stand on this issue, which is not dictated by the likes or dislikes of a person or a party.
Is Liong Sik and Keng Yaik prepared to declare that the MCA and Gerakan will oppose all Islamisation measures which are detrimental to the rights and isterests of the non-Muslim Malaysians, regardless of whether they come from PAS or UMNO?
This is simple question-but invariably, top political leaders who do not have principles will find it most difficult or impossible to answer such simple questions. Can Liong Sik and Keng Yaik answer this simple question?