Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, at the Aver Tawar DAP Branch anniversary dinner held at Ayer Tawar, Perak on Saturday, 26th February 1994 at 7.30 pm
All-Party Parliamentary Committee on Parliamentary Honour and National Integrity will discuss the Government sanctions against Britain and the allegations of corruption, bribery and improprieties against Malaysian Government at its first meeting in Parliament on March 7
The All-Party Parliamentary Committee on Parliamentary Honour and National Integrity will discuss the government sanctions against Britain and the allegations of corruption, bribery and improprieties against Malaysian Government leaders and politicians at its first meeting in Parliament On Monday, March 7.
Leaders of Barisan Nasional component parties have been invited to nominate four representatives each to sit on the All-Party Parliamentary Committee on Parliamentary Honour and National Integrity by February 20, but none of them have had responded so far.
The All-Party Parliamentary Committee will proceed with its meetings with or without participation from the Barisan Nasional MPs, but I hope that the Barisan Nasional component parties would send MPs to represent them at the first meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Committee on March 7 at 11 a.m.
The All-Party Parliamentary Committee will have to deliberate on two issues at its first meeting on March.7, firstly, the Australian mass media allegations that Malaysian govern¬ment MPs and politicians had been receiving bribes from Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) agents until four years ago; and the allegations in the British mass media in the past two months about corruption, bribery and improprieties in business deals involving the Governments, Ministers, political leaders in the United Kingdom and Malaysia.
When the Sydney Sunday Telegraph first carried a report alleging that opposition politicians had been receiving bribes from Australian spies, the Prime Minister, Datuk 3eri Dr. Mahathir stated publicly that there must be some basis to the Austra1ian report.
However, when it was reported in the Canberra Times on February 3 that it was not Malaysian opposition MPs and politicians who had been bribed by ASIS agents, but government and UMNO, MPs and politicians who had acted as ‘traitors’ until four years ago, there had been no word from the Prime Minister.
If we go by the stand taken by the Prime Minister that there must be some basis in the allegations in the Sydney Sunday Telegraph about Malaysian politicians receiving bribes from Australian secret service agents, then Malaysians must also take seriously allegations which had been made in the British mass media in the past two months about corruption, bribery and impro¬prieties in business deals involving the Malaysian Government leaders and politicians.
The All-Party Parliamentary Committee on Parliamentary Honour and National Integrity will seek the co-operation of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and the Cabinet
to investigate into the numerous allegations about corruption, bribery and improprieties which had appeared in the British mass media in the past two months, and in particular concerning the following deals:
the RM5 billion Malaysian purchase of British arms;
the RM1.8 billion Pergau hydroelectric dam project;
the Tenaga Nasional privatisation and floating of Tenaga shares;
the billion-ringgit Antah-Biwater waterworks project:
the suppression of important documents in the RM2.5 billion Bumiputra Malaysia Finance scandal by the British Government as a favour to the Malaysian Government;
the payment of bribes to a team of Malaysian politicians in connection with the bid by the giant. British construction firm WIMPEY to secure a RM2 billion aluminium smelter contract.
The Cabinet should decide at its meeting next Wednes¬day to make available to the All-Party Parliamentary Committee all documents pertaining to the above issues, including the Memorandum of Understanding on the RM5 billion purchase of British arms signed by the Malaysian and British Prime Ministers in 1988, so that the All-Party Parliamentary Committee could issue a report on the veracity or otherwise of the spate of allegations about corruption, bribery and improprieties against Malaysian Government leaders and politicians.
The Prime Minister and the other Cabinet Ministers should also be prepared to appear before the All-Party Parliamentary Committee to answer questions not only on the allegations, but to throw further light on issues like the RM5 billion arms deal, the Pergau project and the Antah-Biwater waterworks contract.
DAP Central Executive Committee will take an official stand on the Malaysian Government sanctions against Britain at its meeting next Friday
My immediate reaction to the Malaysian Government decision to impose sanctions as a retaliation to the allegations in the British mass media in the past two months is that it is inappropriate and unjustifiable.
The most important thing in the minds of all Malaysians is to find out the veracity or otherwise of these allega¬tions.
This is why the Malaysian Government should either give full co-operation with the All-Party Parliamentary Committee on Parliamentary Honour and National Integrity to investigate into the British mass media allegations, or it should establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry to conduct a public inquiry into the allegations.
The DAP Central Executive Committee will take an official stand on the Malaysian Government sanctions against Britain at its meeting next Friday, 4th March.