By Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjong, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Friday , January 28th, 1994:
Was the newspaper report on the preposterous allegation that Australian spies bribed Malaysian ‘senior opposition politicians’ with tens of thousands of dollars timed for the Sabah state general elections?
I have been asked whether the Australian newspaper report on the preposterous allegation that Australian spies bribed Malaysian ‘ senior opposition politicians’ with tens of thousands of dollars was timed for the Sabah state general elections.
I cannot answer this question as I do not know , but I myself wonder as the timing is clearly intriguing.
The Sydney Sunday Telegraph carried the report “ Aussie Spies Bribe Asian MPs” in its issue of 16 th January 1994 , with the Canberra Times carrying a reaction the next day that the Australian Federal Government refused to comment on the revelation that the Australian secret service bribed parliamentarians in Malaysia and Singapore on the ground that the “Government never commented on intelligence matters”.
There were ample time for these reports to be discussed at its regular Wednesday Cabinet meeting last week on January 19 or for the reports to be made public earlier . This was not done . Instead there was a ten-day lag and the Australian newspaper reports were only made public in Malaysia following a decision of the Cabinet meeting.
I fully agree with the comment by the Prime Minister. Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed , yesterday yjay action would have to be taken against Opposition political leaders if they had been bribed to become the agents of Australian spies. In fact , action should be taken against Malaysian politician who have betrayed the national interests by serving foreign powers as their agents or spies , regardless of whether they are from the Opposition or the government.
This is why the DAP would support any Government investigation into the preposterous allegation.
I would more keen than Dr. Mahathir to know if it is true that ‘senior opposition politicians ‘ had been bribed to become agents of Australian spies and who they are
If it is true that ‘ senior opposition politicians’ had been bribed by the Australian secret service with tens of thousands of Australian dollars , I would be more keen than Dr. Mahathir to know their identities , whether these ‘ senior opposition politicians ‘ are still MPs today , and whether referrubg to Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah or Sarawak.
Futhermore , if the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) had recruited opposition politicians as their agents , had they recruited government politicians are would be the most logical as only government politicians are likely to have access to the type of information wanted by spies?
However, until the authenticity of such a preposterous allegation had been established , no one such play party politics on the issue , which should be regarded as an issue above party politics concerning the integrity and good name of the nation and the Malaysian Parliament.
It is because we regard this as a serious national issue which rises above party politics that we want a full and comprehensive inquiry into the preposterous allegation of the former Australian intelligence agents and called for a Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry as the integrity of Malaysian MPs had also been impugned .