Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, at the Tanjong Bungah DAP ‘Tanjong 3’ Dinner held in Tanjong Bungah on Saturday, April 3, 1993 at 8 pm
Advice to Tsu Koon not to be so jittery and nervous a Chief Minister, as to see my shadows all over Tanjong Bungah and afraid to hold more regular State Assembly meetings.
I was of two minds whether to attend tonight’s DAP Tanjong Bungah ‘Tanjong 3’ dinner.
Is is natural that I should attend tonight’s dinner, but I am quite reluctant to cause more upsets to the Penang Chief Minister. Dr, Koh Tsu Koon, as he is already seeing my shadows all over Tanjong Bungah.
Tsu Koon will lose his sleep tonight, as he will probably be having an emergency meeting of Gerakan leaders at midnight to plot a counter-move to the ‘threat’ of my attending this function.
I must confess I have never come across a head of government, who is as nervous and jittery as Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, and I myself would not have believed Dr. Koh Tsu Koon could be do nervous and jottery, if not for the tell-tale admissions by the national and state Gerakan leaders themselves.
Last Novermber ,the Penang Gerakan publicly announced a special contingency plan against me on the ground that I was ‘eyeing’ campaigning in several areas within the constituency’.
Koh Tsu Koon’s political secretary, the Machang Bubuk State Assemblyman Goik Hock Lai, went on record and told the New Sunday Times of 29th November 1992 that Koh Tsu was “aware that Lim had been recently active in Tanjong Bungah” and that the Penang Chief Minister was being kept informed of my activities within his constituency.
This report came as a complete news and surprise to me, for I had not been appearing in Tanjong Bungah at all. It is obvious that Dr. Koh Tsu Koon had become so jittery and nervous that without my physically appearing in Tanjong Bungah, he and his ‘political boys’ could see my shadows all over the constituency.
Then in February, I had a dinner with my family in Tanjong Bungah on my birthday. This is not only sent the Penany Chief Minister and Penang Gerakan into fit, it also sent the Gerakan national leadership into a frenzy.
As a result, at the end of February, the Gerakan National President, Datuk Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, rushed to Penang to launch a ‘counter-offensive’ to my having a family birthday dinner in Tanjong Bungah and alleged that I was indulging in ‘beggar politics’ and that I had been going round Tanjong Bungah ‘begging’ the people for their votes in the next general elections.
The people of TanjongBungah know that these are pure lies and concoctions of the fevered imaginations of the Gerakan national and state leader. What is most interesting, however, are not these lies and concoctions, but the frame of mind of the Gerakan national and state leaders, including Dr. Lim Keng Yaik and Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, which made them stoop to such lies and concoctions.
It shows a Gerakan national leadership which has no confi¬dence in Dr. Koh Tsu Koon as Penang Chief Minister, for it is open knowledge that the real power in the Penang State Government does not lie in the office, of the Penang Chief Minister.
It also shows a Penang Chief Minister who is very nervous and jittery, that he could see me ‘campaigning’ in Tanjong Bungah when I had not visited the constituency.
May be, next time, before I visit or pass through Tanjong Bungah, I should inform the Chief Minister’s Office so that Dr. Koh Tsu Koon would not be getting ‘shocks’ after ‘shocks’ at reports from the Gerakan special committee ‘monitoring’ my activities in Tanjong Bungah .
Penang Government did not fill the Senate post which became vacant on expiry of Tan Ghim Hwa in time for the final voting on 1993 Constitution Amendment Bill in Dewan Negara on March 10 because Tsu Koon was afraid to hold State Assembly meeting
That Dr. Koh Tsu Koon is very nervous and jittery as Chief Minister could also be seen by his fear of State Assembly meetings, so much so that he dare not call more regular State Assembly meetings, and is trying to hold as few State Assembly meetings as possible.
The Penang State Assembly should have met last month to appoint a new senator for Penang to participate in the final debate and voting on the 1993 Constitution Amendment Bill to remove the Rulers’ immunity in the Dewan Negara on March 10 when it was returned to Parliament by the Yang di Pertuan Agong for the second time.
Tan Ghim Hwa’s term as Senator had expired in early March and as a result he was not qualified to attend the Dewan Negara second special sitting on March 10.
It cannot be that Dr. Koh Tsu Koon did not realise the importance of filling the Penang Senator post on the expiry of Tan Ghim Hwa’ s term so as to take part in the final voting of the 1993 Constitution Amendment Bill.
However, this would mean convening a State Assembly meeting in March and having to face the Penang DAP Assemblymen.
So far, Dr. Koh Tsu Koon has kept to the practice of holding only one Assembly meeting every six months, the maximum period allowed by the Assembly Standing Orders. There was only one exception – the emergency State Assembly sitting last November to introduce the State Constitution Amendment Bill to increase three State Assembly seats for the Penang State, which was defeated because of lack of two-thirds Assembly majority.
Going by this six-month rule, Dr. Koh Tsu Koon would not be convening the next State Assembly until June, as the last. State Assembly meeting was in December.
This would mean that the vacant post of Senator from Penang would not be filled even in the next Dewan Negara meeting, which will be held in May.
This is most irresponsible, and the only explanation is the fear of Dr. Koh Tsu Koon in holding more regular State Assembly meetings.
I would advise Dr. Koh Tsu Koon not to be so jittery and nervous a Chief Minister, as to see my shadows all over Tanjong Bungah and afraid to hold more regular State Assembly meetings.