MCA leaders must be joking when they said that the DAP is the biggest stumbling block to Chinese unity

by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Penang on Wednesday, 22nd January 1992:

MCA leaders must be joking when they said that the DAP is the biggest stumbling block to Chinese unity

The Penang MCA State Chairman, Dr.Sak Cheng Lam, said at the closing ceremony of the Penang MCA Youth leadership workcamp on Monday that the ‘DAP is the biggest stumbling block to Chinese unity’.

The trouble with many MCA national leaders like Dr.Sak Cheng Lam is that they just blindly read out the speeches prepared for them by headless and faceless ‘cultural assassins’ at the MCA Headquarters.

If Dr. Sak had given serious thought beforehand, he would have realised how rediculous was his speech and he would not have delivered it.

The MCA received nationally the support of 20 per cent of the Chinese electorate in the October 1990 general elections, and this was why MCA Ministers and MPs could only win y contesting in UMNO’s ‘safe’ constituencies.

In Penang, the MCA was totally wiped out, with all its Parliamentary and State Assembly candidates rejected by the people. I do not think the MCA in Penang secured more than 10 per cent of Chinese-voter support.

How could a party like MCA which can get only 10 to 20 per cent of Chinese voter support accuse the DAP, which enjoyed the undoubted confidence of the Chinese in Penang and Malaysia, as ‘the biggest stumbling block’ to Chinese unity?

Even children can tell Dr.Sak that he is talking nonsense. MCA leaders like Dr.Sam must be joking when they say that the DAP is the ‘biggest stumbling block’ of Chinese unity.

This is not the first time that Dr.Sak had issued ridiculous and stupid statements, prepared by the headless and faceless ‘cultural assassins’ at MCA headquarters but issued in his name.

For instance, Dr.Sak issued a statement on December 4 attacking the DAP’s Tanjong Declaration which was adopted by the DAP 25th Anniversary Special Congress in Penang on December 1. Dr.Sak accused the Tanjong Declaration of devoting too much space to attack Chinese organisational leaders, when in fact the Tanjong Declaration did not make any reference whatsoever to Chinese organisation leaders.

Penang MCA Youth Leadership Workcamp is to train MCA Youth cadres to be opportunistic and tell lies about the DAP

From the opening speech by the MCA Youth Leader, Chan Kong Choy and the closing speech by Dr.Sam Cheng Lam, it is clear that the Penang MCA Youth Leadership Workcamp was a training camp to train MCA Youth cadres to be opportunistic and tell lies about the DAP.

The primary objectives of the MCA Youth workcamp must be to teach the participants to be opportunistic, hypocritical and parasitical in politics-which are the special characteristic of MCA politics.

I will give an example. When I was in Malacca last week, I was told that the Malacca State Government had built a new market in the State Assembly constituency of the Malacca State Executive Councillor who is also Malacca MCA Chairman which forbid the sale of pork. This is the first time in Malacca where a market in a predominantly-Chinese populated areas was not allowed to sell pork.

Did the MCA Youth Chairman, Chan Kong Choy and other MCA leaders condemn, protest or oppose this unreasonable measure of the Malacca State Government?

I have no doubt that if this had happened in Kelantan and not in Malacca, all the MCA and MCA Youth leaders would be making daily attacks proclaiming this as another proof of the ‘Islamisation’ of the PAS Kelantan State Government which has deprived the Chinese of their rights.

The participants at the MCA Youth Leadership Workcamp must have been taught why the same measure is innocent and harmless if it happened under a UMNO or Barisan Nasional administration, but it becomes a great threat to Chinese and non-Muslim rights if it should happen in Kelantan under PAS Government?

Let the MCA and MCA Youth leaders explain and justify this political opportunism and hypocrisy publicly, instead of poisoning the young and impressionable minds of young Malaysians in the privacy and secrecy of MCA Youth training camps.