by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjong, Lint Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Wednesday, July 21, 1993:
Liong Sik should order the cancellation of the MCA mammoth drinking party in Kota Bahru on August 6 before more harm is done to the dignity of the Chinese community giving the impression that the Chinese in Malaysia are alcoholics
MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik should immediately order the cancellation of the MCA mammoth drinking party in Kota Bahru on August 6 before more harm is done to the dignity of the Chinese community both in Kelantan and Malaysia in spreading the impression that the Chinese in Malaysia are alcoholics.
It is very clear that adverse public reactions against the MCA mammoth 1,600-people drinking party in Kota Bahru on August 6 is escalating day by day, to the extent that, even UMNO leaders have come out to criticise and condemn it.
Kelantan UMNO Deputy Chairman and Minister for Youth and Sports, Senator Anuar Musa, said he had asked the MCA to cancel the proposed MCA mammoth drinking party on August 6, and that this has been agreed to by the MCA Deputy President, Datuk Lee Kim Sai.
Clearly, Senator Anuar Musa had spoken to the wrong MCA leader for yesterday, Liong Sik declared that Kelantan MCA Youth had been fully empowered to -decide on its proposed mammoth drinking party in Kota Bahru on August. 6.
Liong Sik is again demonstrating his utter insensitivity to the complex multi-racial and multi-religious society in Malaysia, and the need to avoid giving any impression that in opposing the new Kelantan State Government regulations restricting the public sale and consumption of alcohol affecting non-Muslims. MCA leaders are:
1. encouraging and mobilising Chinese in Kelantan to drink alcohol; and
2. heedless of the harm to the dignity of the Chinese community in giving other communities and Muslims the picture that the Chinese in Malaysia are alcoholics.
The adverse reactions against the MCA mammoth drinking party on August 6 has escalated to such a level that the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Dr. Abdul Hamid Othman, has described the August 6 MCA mammoth drinking party as a threat to national security and called on the police to prohibit it.
If Liong Sik dare not decide on his own, he should convene an emergency meeting of either the MCA Presidential Council or the MCA Central Committee to study the call of Datuk Dr. Abdul Hamid Othman in the Utusan Malaysia today that “polis perlu menghalang pesta minum arak yang dirancangkan pada 6 Ogos di Kota Bahru, Kelantan kerana berbahaya kepada kestabilan negara.”
MCA is doing a great disservice in creating a national controversy over its Pesta Minum Arak in Kota Bahru which is distracting public attention from the new Kelantan State Government regulation restricting public-sale and consumption of alcohol
Datuk Abdul Hamid Othman described the “pesta minum arak adalah satu kempen provokatif secara terbuka yang boleh mengganggu kestabilan berbilang agama di negara ini.”
He said “ia juga menggambarkan perasaan tidak sensitif satu kaum terhadap kaum yang lain, yang dibuat secara terbuka.”
He continued:”Pesta tersebut boleh menjadi punca pergaduhan antara kauin sekiranya tidak dihalang.
“Polis perlu melihat cadangan tersebut secara serius dan kalau boleh jangan biarkan cadangan tersebut diteruskan.”
Liong Sik should take this statement by the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department seriously, for it should be regarded as a serious warning that the MCA had so mishandled the issue of the new Kelantan State Government regulations restricting public sale and consumption of alcohol affecting non-Muslims that the real issue has been lost. Instead, the issue now is whether there should be a mammoth drinking session in Kota Bahru on August 6.
Liong Sik had committed a colossal political mistake where even UMNO leaders have come to the conclusion that its mammoth 1,600-people public drinking party in Kota Bahru on August 6 is a provocation to the Muslims.
In fact, MCA is doing a great disservice to the cause to defend non-Muslim rights in opposing the new Kelantan State Government regulation restricting public sale and consumption of alcohol by creating a national controversy over its Pesta Minum Arak which is also being condemned by UMNO leaders. As a result of this Pesta Minum controversy, the issue of the Kelantan State Government regulation restricting public sale and consumption of alcohol affecting non-Muslims has been completely distracted!
The PAS leaders in Kelantan cannot be more happy at this turn of events, and privately, they must be thanking Liong Sik and the MCA leaders for their “political insensitivity arid folly”.
I am prepared to meet and advise Liong Sik how the campaign to oppose the new Kelantan State Government regulation restricting public sale and consumption of alcohol could be conducted by the MCA more effectively
I had right from the beginning advised Liong Sik to cancel the Pesta Minum Arak in Kota Bahru. Before more harm is done, Liong Sik should immediately order the cancellation of the MCA Pesta Minum Arak in Kota Bahru on August 6 so that the issue of the new Kelantan State Government regulation restricting public sale and consumption of alcohol affecting non-Muslims is not lost altogether.
It is clear that Liong Sik is not being well-advised by his “Brains-Trust”. I am prepared to meet arid advise Liong Sik how the campaign to oppose the new Kelantan State Government regulation restricting public sale and consumption of alcohol affecting non-Muslims could be conducted by the MCA more effectively and intelligently.