By Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjong, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Saturday, July 3, 1993:
Liong Sik is using the ‘little man’s heart to measure a noble person’s stomach’ when he asked what has happened to DAP’s Save Bukit China funds
MCA President, DAtuk Dr.Ling Liong Sik, is using the ‘little man’s heart to measure a noble person’s stomach’ when he asked what has happened to DAP’s Save Bukit China funds.
Just because MCA leades have made it into a habit to pocket public funds, as in the case of the RM20 million Chan Min Tien Scholarship Fund and the various co-operative finance scandals in 1986, and have dubious financial dealings as in his own Bolton Finance scandal, Liong Sik thinks all political parties behave like the MCA.
This is definitely not the case as far as the DAP is concerned. In querying about the Save Bukit China funds, Liong Sik has also proven right the criticism levelled against him by MCA dissident leaders like Ng Cheng Kiat, Woon See Chin and Kok Wee Kiat that the MCA President does not know first-hand what is happening in Chinese society and in the Chinese newspapers, and had to reply on second-hand channel for such information which have always proved very faulty.
If Liong Sik can get first-hand information about what is happening in the Chinese society as in reading Chinese newspapers himself, he would have known that the DAP had announced publicly several times the sums collected by the DAP in the Save Bukit China campaign to protect the oldest Chinese cemetry hill from beign demolished by a conspiracy of the Malacca UMNO and the then Tan Koon Swan MCA faction, of which Liong Sik was a prominent lieutenant, in 1984.
If Liong Sik had checked with Cheng Hoon Teng, the trustees of Bukit China, he would have learnt that the DAP had been in correspondence with them on the funds as we had wanted to hand over RM31,225.09 but Cheng Heng Teng has taken the position that “the monies donated by well wishers to the Corporation’s Bukit China Fund for the purpose of paying quit rent is no longer required and shall be refunded to the donors since the Bukit China quit rent case in Court has already been resolved.” (Cheng Hoon Teng’s reply to DAP dated 30th September 1992.)
DAP is waiting for a reply from Cheng Hoon Teng ot our proposal “to conribute the fund towards the Bukit China Beautification Committee to erect a memorial commemorating the successful struggle to save the preserve Bukit China from being levelled by the Malacca State Government in 1983-84”. (DAP’s response to Cheng Hoon Teng dated 8th December 1992).
Liong Sik is just ‘playing political games’ when he said that MCA will co-operate with other Barisan component parties to defeat DAP’s Tanjong 3 project in Penang
Liong Sik is just ‘playing political games’ when he said that MCA will co-operate with other Barisan component parties in Penang to defeat DAP’s Tanjong 3 project in the next general elections.
Liong Sik cannot hide the fact that the important reason why the MCA was completely wiped out in Penang for both Parliamentary and state assembly seats in the last general elections was because he himself had no confidence in the future of the MCA in Penang.
This was why in 1986, he fled the Mata Kuching (now Bagan) parliamentary seat in Penang all the way to Johore to the Labis parliamentary seat to depend on UMNO’s Malay votes to get into Parliament and Cabinet.
The problem for the Barisan Nasional in Penang is not how MCA could help the other Barisan Nasional parties in the next general elections, but how the other Barisan Nasional could help the MCA in Penang.
This was why Gerakan President, DAtuk Dr.Lim Keng Yaik, said in Penang a few days ago that Gerakan will help MCA in Penang to stand on its feet again-and not the other way round.
It has been reported that Liong Sik is going to appoint Datuk Lee Kim Sai as Penang MCA State Chairman. This is another proof that Liong Sik is not serious at all about MCA’s future in Penang, as his ‘heart is dead’ as far as his hopes for MCA in Penang is concerned.