by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Friday, 16th July 1993:
Challenge to Liong Sik to declare whether he would donate the RM150,000 MCA Save Bukit China Fund to jointly build a memorial on Bukit China or donate it to Pay Pong, Dong/Zhiao Zhung education fund or Southern College
Yesterday, I proposed that the MCA join the DAP to build a memorial on Bukit China to commemorate the Bukit China controversy in 1984.
The DAP will use the DAP Save-Bukit China and Oppose-$2 million-Quit Rent One-Person One-Dollar Fund which stands at, RM33,732.79 as at June 15, 1993, and the MCA can use its Save Bukit -China Fund from the donations of MCA Ministers, Deputy Ministers, MPs, State Execs and Assemblymen in December 1984 which, together with interests, should exceed RM150,000.
Each party should be responsible for designing its portion of the memorial to commemorate the 1984 Bukit China controversy and to raise additional funds if needed.
I challenge the MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik, to declare his stand as to whether MCA dares to accept this proposal that DAP and MCA jointly finance the building of a memorial on Bukit China.
If Liong Sik is not prepared to agree to use the RM150,000 MCA Save-Bukit China Fund for the construction of a memorial, then the MCA President should declare whether the MCA is prepared to donate this money for Pay Fong Chinese Independent Secondary School, Dong/Zhiao Zhong education fund or Southern College.
Tomorrow is the deadline for my challenge to Liong Sik to declare that he is riot satisfied with my announcement of the DAP Save -Bukit China One-Person One-Dollar Fund in Malacca last Saturday, so that I could arrange a second ‘Lim Kit Siang-Ling Liong Sik mutual questioning’ in Malacca within a week.
It is most regrettable that in the last one week, Liong Sik has gone into ‘hiding’ after I had accepted his challenge to announce the details of the DAP Save-Bukit China One-Person One-Dollar fund within a week. Liong Sik is clearly seeking refuge in his ‘patience1 gambit, after his ‘offensive’ against the DAP had boomeranged against him and the MCA.
Instead, MCA Malacca leaders have been issuing wild statements purportedly raising queries about various DAP activities to raise funds for the DAP Save Bukit China campaign in 1984.
I have asked the Malacca DAP leaders to ignore these statements by the Malacca MCA for the present.
This is not because the DAP has no answers to the Malacca MCA statements and queries, but to give Ling Liong Sik as MCA President the opportunity to decide whether to adopt these Malacca MCA queries as official MCA statements.
If Liong Sik is not prepared to adopt these Malacca MCA statements himself, it only shows that the MCA President has himself lost all confidence in the things being said, by the Malacca MCA leaders despite the fact that Malacca is the only state where the MCA has produced a leader who has made a name for carrying Liong Sik’s ‘photograph’!