by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Wednesday, 26th February 1992:
The eight MCA allegations of the ‘oppression’ and ‘persecution’ of the Chinese in Kelantan have become the eight big ‘condemnations’ of the MCA national leadership
The eight MCA allegations of the ‘oppression’ and ‘persecution’ of the Chinese in Kelantan by the PAS-led Kelantan State Government have become the eight big ‘condemnations’ of the MCA national leadership exposing its intellectual dishonesty, political bankruptcy and moral decadence.
In the first two months of the MCA’s ‘all-out war’ against the DAP, the MCA Ministers and leaders were very successful in making the Chinese outside Kelantan believe that the Chinese in Kelantan are in ‘deep waters and furnace heat’ and had been ‘oppressed’ and ‘persecuted’ by the PAS-led Kelantan State Government. The MCA Ministers and leaders, in particular, made the Chinese in Malaysia believe that the following eight allegations about the ‘oppression’ and ‘persecution’ of the Chinese in Kelantan:
1. The Chinese in Kelantan cannot eat or sell pork;
2. They cannot drink beer publicly but must ‘hide and drink steathily’;
3. They cannot buy or sell liquor;
4. They must stop business during Muslim prayers;
5. They cannot go to unisex saloons;
6. Chinese women must cover their heads and wear Islamic attire;
7. Chinese women cannot work night shift; and
8. Chinese business signboards must be taken down and replaced with Jawi characters.
However, the DAP fact-finding mission to Kelantan at the end of January found that there is no basis or truth whatsoever in these eight allegations spread by the MCA Ministers and leaders. For the past one month we have been asking in vain for the MCA Ministers and leaders to produce proof for at least one of the eight allegations, for the DAP would condemn the PAS-led Kelantan State Government if it had implemented Islamisation measures infringing the rights and interests of non-Muslims.
I want to advise the MCA Ministers and leaders that if they cannot produce any evidence to prove these eight allegations, then they will become the eight big ‘condemnations’ of the intellectual dishonesty, political bankruptcy and moral decadence of the MCA national leadership.
Furthermore, if MCA Ministers and leaders can openly tell lies and untruths about the present, how can their claims about the future be believed?
Recently, the MCA Deputy Education Minister, Dr. Fong Chan Onn, had been claiming that the quota system in the local universities would be abolished in 2000?
If the MCA Ministers and leaders can tell lies even about the present day, can they be believed when they walk about 2,000?
This is why the MCA Ministers must face up to their eight allegations about the ‘oppression’ and ‘persecution’ of the Chinese in Kelantan. They must publicly admit that there is no basis or truth in these eight allegations in present-day Kelantan, or these eight allegations will continue to hang over the heads of the MCA Ministers and leaders, and render all their statements, speeches and announcements of little worth, value or believeability!