By Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjong, Lim Kit Siang, in Penang on Thursday , January 27th, 1994:
Paul Keating should neither reveal the names of ‘ senior opposition politicians’ in Malaysia who had received tens of thousands of Australian dollars of bribes from the Australian secret service or he should take responsibility and publicly apologise for the preposterous allegation
Australian Prime Minister , Paul Keating should either reveal the names of ‘ senior opposition politicians ‘ in Malaysia who had received tens of thousands of Australian dollars of bribes from the Australian Secret Intelligence Service or he should take responsibility for the preposterous allegation and tender a public apology to senior Malaysian opposition politicians whose reputation and integrity had been besmirched by such an allegation.
Although DAP has called for the establishment of a Joint Public Commission of Inquiry by the Malaysian and Australian Governments into such a preposterous allegation , it is also in the Malaysian national interest for Malaysia to institute an inquiry to establish the following:
Firstly , whether there is any truth in the preposterous allegation that ASIS had paid tens of thousands of Australian dollars to ‘ senior opposition politicians’ who were recruited in their junior days with simple cash bribes;
Secondly if so the identify of these senior opposition politicians who had become the agents of Australian spies , whether the Sunday Telegraph report is referring to senior opposition politicians who are still MPs today and the timeframe of the payments – whether current , five years ago or ten years ago;
The New Straits Times in its front-page report today referred to the payment of bribes by ASIS to senior opposition politicians ‘ over the past few years ‘ suggesting that such payments were paid in the 1990s . I have checked with the Sunday Telegraph report and there was no mention tying the timeframe to the ‘ past few year’
The relevant Sunday Telegraph report said :” The cash payments from the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) have continued over many years beginning when the MPs were junior politicians and increased as the receipients grew in stature .” This could be describing 1994 , 1990 ,1985 or even 1980 , if there is any basis to it.
Thirdly , if the ASIS had recruited and brided “ senior opposition politicians “ to become their spies , then the ASIS would have also recruited government politicians because the ASIS are more likely to get more useful information from government politicians than from Opposition politicians and the ASIS field agents would be very stupid spies if they had recruited only opposition politicians and not government politicians;
Fourthly , regardness of whether the ASIS had recruited and brided opposition politicians or government politicians , this is clearly an unforgivable meddling in the internal affairs of Malaysia by Australia for which the Australian Government must take full and total responsibility .
Apart from its veracity , this preposterous allegation is also most despicable as it suggests that Malaysian politicians are men without honour who could betray the national interest for bribes . This is an insult to the integrity not only to all politicians in Malaysia, but to all Malaysians as well.
As the integrity of Malaysians Mps , in particular Opposition MPs , have been besmirched – whether of current MPs or previous MPs – by the preposterous allegation in the Sydeney Daily Telegrapgh report , a Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry should be established to clear the name of the Malaysian Parliament or to idenfity and expose the MPs who had betrayed the national interest in becoming agents of Australian spies .
Alternatively , the Malaysian Government should set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the allegation.
DAP takes a very serious view of the preposterous allegation emanating from Australian. The DAP will not hesitate to take action against any MP who had betrayed the trust of the party ,the party , the people and the nation to become agents of Australian spies.
The DAP will be asking for an appointment with the Australian High Commissioner to demand for a full explanation as well as to lodge a strong protest against the preposterous and despicable allegation .