by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Penang on Tuesday, June 15, 1993:
I will withdraw my private member’s bill to amend the Penang State Constitution to increase six state assembly seats if Tsu Koon or Ibrahim Saad could prove that I had been inconsistent on this issue
Both the Penang Chief Minister, Dr. Koh Tsu Koon and Deputy Chief Minister, Dr. Ibrahim Saad, have claimed that I had been inconsistent on the issue of the increase of State Assembly seats for the Penang State.
They said that in the November 2 special sitting of the State Assembly, I had apposed the state government’s Penang State Constitution Amendment Bill to increase of eleven state assembly seats. Yet, I am now moving a private member’s bill to amend the Penang State Constitution to increase six state assembly seats.
I will withdraw my private member’s bill to amend the Penang State Constitution to increase six state assembly seats if Dr. Koh Tsu Koon or Dr. Ibrahim Saad could prove that I had been inconsistent on this issue.
Dr. Ibrahim had even said that he found my proposal to move a private member’s bill to amend the Penang State Constitution to increase six state assembly seats very ‘confusing;. Can he give one good reason for his ‘confusion’ which has nothing to do with me.
I would advise Dr. Koh Tsu Koon and Dr. Ibrahim Saad to check all that I have said on this issue in the past nine months, both inside the Penang State Assembly and outside, and they will find that I had been completely consistent in demanding that Penang State Assembly should have two new Parliamentary and six additional State Assembly seats.
The Penang DAP Assemblymen proposed an increase of 11 state assembly seats at last November’s State Assembly sitting because Dr. Koh Tsu Koon had announced that the Penang State Governemnt had agreed that there should be no increase of any new Parliamentary seat inn Penang. The Penang DAP Assemblymen had counter-suggested that if there is to be no increase of any Parliamentary seat in Penang State, then there should be an increase of 11 state assembly seats by increasing the ratio of one parliamentary seat to three state assembly seats in Penang.
If Tsu Koon and Ibrahim Saad had cared to check what I said in the Penang State Assembly on November 2 last year, he would have found that I had made it very clear that what DAP really wanted is to have an increase of two parliamentary and six state assembly seats in Penang.
If Tsu Koon and Ibrahim Saad could not find proof that I had been inconsistent in my stand on the increase of state assembly seats in Penang, then they should allow my private member’s bill to amend the Penang State Constitution to come up for a full debate in the Penang State Assembly mext week and not resort to undemocratic tactics in trying to ‘kill’ it by rejecting the private member’s bill on week and flimsy grounds.