by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Tuesday, June 29, 1993:
Liong Sik should be prepared to have a public debate with the DAP on the Langkawi Project if he is serious about MCA wanting to regain MCA lost seats in Penang
MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik, should be prepared to have a public debate with the DAP on the Langkawi Project if he is serious about the MCA wanting to regain MCA lost seats in Penang in thee next general elections.
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, had congratulated the MCA for the Langkawi Project and said that the Government would support the plan and work out the details of the financial allocation.
Liong Sik said the Government is likely to approve ‘dollar-to-a-dollar’ allocation for the Langkawi Project.
Why is the Government not prepared to make ‘dollar-to-dollar’ grant to the sixty Chinese Independent Secondary Schools and for the construction of the Dong Zhiao Zhung Education Centre in Kajang?
This is another proof that the MCA’s Langkawi Project is not an educational plan at all, but a political plan to save MCA Ministers and MPs in the next general elections.
In actual fact, the Langkawi Project is proof that the role and position of the MCA Ministers in Cabinet had become so completely marginalised, that they have lost all power and influence on important decision-making but are only allowed to play with ‘little games’ like the Langkawi Project.
Liong Sik knows that the RM20 million Langkawi Project is actually a very marginal project compared to the important things which powerful Ministers can do. For instance, it is nothing unusual for the Deputy Prime Minister, Ghafar Baba, to approve grants exceeding RM20 million when he visits Sabah in his capacity as UMNO Sabah Chairman!
If Liong Sik dare not come to Penang to have a public debate with the DAP on the Langkawi Project, then he might as well abandon his so-called MCA task force to regain the MCA lost seats in Penang in the next general elections – especially as Liong Sik must bear the greatest responsibility for the MCA being completely wiped out in Penang in the last general elections, both for Parliament and State.