by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Java on Thursday, 15th July 1993:
DAP invites MCA to jointly finance the building of a memorial on Bukit China to commemorate the Bukit China controversy in 1984
Last Saturday, I announced that the DAP Save-Bukit China and Oppose-$2 million-Quit Rent One-Person One-Dollar Fund stood at $33,732.79 as at June 15, 1993.
The MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik, has vet. to announce the latest figures for- the MCA Save-Bukit China Fund. On 10th December 1984, the MCA President announced that the MCA had raised $100,000 from MCA Ministers, Deputy Ministers, MPs, State Excos and Assemblymen to ‘save Bukit China’ and oppose the $2 million demand for 17 years of quit rent arrears of the Malacca State Government on pain of confiscation if this amount is not paid within a month. Together with interest, this amount should exceed $150,000 today.
DAP invites MCA to jointly finance the building of a memorial on Bukit China in Malacca on the Bukit China controversy in 1984.
Each party will be responsible for raising all further funds necessary to complete its portion of the memorial on Bukit China, so that Cheng Hoon Teng, the Bukit China Beautification Committee or any-other organisation does not have to come out with a single cent.
The MCA can justify why ten years ago MCA leaders like the MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik, was part of the conspiracy with the Malacca Chief Minister, Tan Sri Rahim Tamby Cik, to demolish Bukit China by digging up the 12,000 graves on the most ancient Chinese cemetry in Malaysia and throw them into the sea for land reclamation.
For our part, the DAP will commemorate the nation-wide Save Bukit China campaign launched by the DAP to defeat the conspiracy of Rahim Tamby Cik and Ling Liong Sik to demolish the 500-year-old Bukit China and turn it into a housing and commercial complex so that a few millionaires could be created at the expense of the 12,000 gravestones on Bukit China.
The DAP is proud of the Save Bukit China campaign which we launched in 1984. In fact, the DAP’s Save Bukit China is one of DAP’s finest political struggles which proved for the present and future generations that with people’s unity, they could withstand any pressure or threat to defend their fundamental citizenship, cultural and historic rights.
The question is whether the MCA and in particular Ling Liong Sik are proud of their role ten year’s ago to try to help ‘Demolish Bukit China’ and want to have it commemorated with a memorial on Bukit China.
I will not be very wrong if I predict, that Liong Sik will reject the DAP’s offer to MCA to jointly fund the building of a memorial on Bukit China to commemorate the Bukit China controversy in 1984, for Liong Sik wants everybody to forget that he had actively participated in the Rahim Tamby Cik conspiracy to demolish Bukit China ten years ago.
Let Liong Sik prove me wrong, and accept the DAP offer to MCA to jointly fund the building a memorial on Bukit China to commemorate the Bukit China controversy in 1984 on the ground that Liong Sik and the MCA has no historic wrongs and betrayals to hide!