Press Conference Statement (3) by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, at the Penang DAP Hqrs at Kinta Lane, Penang on Saturday, July 24, 1993 at 11.30 a.m.
Kit Siang challenges Liong Sik to a full debate on the Langkawi Project in the current Parliamentary meeting for him to prove that MCA’s RM20 million is more effective than the RM5.1 billion allocated by government for rural education under the Sixth Malaysia Plan
Penang MCA Youth is spreading word that the MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik, might come to Penang tomorrow night to have a debate with me on the MCA’s Langkawi Project.
I have party functions in Johore Bahru tomorrow. However, if Liong Sik dares to confirm that he would come to Penang to have public debate with me on the MCA Langkawi Project, I am prepared to cancel all my previous engagements and rush back to Penang to debate with him, all he needs to do is to confirm anytime today that he is coming to Penang tomorrow for a debate with me on the MCA Langkawi Project, with such confirmation appearing in the newpapers tomorrow. If Liong Sik dare not confirm that he going to come to Penang for a public debate on the Langkawi Project, then nobody is going to waste his time tomorrow night.
From what I know of Liong Sik, who has; established quite a political record as a political leader who is always running away from challenges, it would, be a ‘miracle’ if Liong Sik dare to come to Penang to have a public debate with me on the MCA Langkawi Project.
Ever since 1986, when Liong Sik heard that I would be contesting in Penang, he had been ‘on the run’. In the 1986 general elections, he fled the Matang Kuching (now Bagan) parliamentary seat all the way to the Labis parliamentary seat in Johore to get into Parliament and Cabinet on UMNO’s Malay votes.
On July 10, I accepted Liong Sik’s challenge to announce the DAP’s Save-Bukit China One-Person One-Dollar Fund within a week, but he ‘chickened out’ and dare not show up, because he has so many personal and MCA financial scandals he could not account for – like the Bolton Finance scandal, the Chang Min Tien Education Fund scandal, the MCA RM150,000 Save-Bukit China-Fund scandal, the Multi-Purpose Holdings Bnd. Scandal, etc.
I know as sure as the sun rises in the East, that Liong Sik would not dare .to have a public debate with me on the MCA Langkawi Project in Penang or in any other place in Malaysia.
This does not mean however that he could run away from the issue. Two days ago, in reply to my question, the Education Minister, Datuk Dr. Sulaiman Daud said that, the Government has allocatedRM5.1 billion specially for education in rural areas under the Sixth Ma1aysia Plan.
MCA’s RM20 million is a mere 0.4 per cent of RM5.1 billion allocation for education in rural areas under the Sixth Malaysia. Only MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik, can claim that MCA’s RM20 million is the magic formula to raise rural education standards and is even more effective than the RM5.1 billion allocated by the government, under the Sixth Malaysia Plan.
I challenge Liong Sik to a full debate on the MCA’s Langkawi Project in the current Parliamentary meeting, as it is most appropriate that all MPs hear how MCA’s RM20 million is more effective than the Government RM5.1 billion under the Sixth Malaysia Plan.