Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjong, Lim Kit Siang, at the Pandamaran Klang DAPSY anniversary dinner held in Pandamaran on Friday, 17th June 1994 at 8 pm
DAP calls for nation-wide reduction of assessment rates by local government, authorities in view of privatisation of many local government services
DAP calls for the nation-wide reduction of assessment rates by local government authorities in view of the privatisation of many services previously provided for by local authorities.
The local authorities had in the past provided sewerage, garbage-collection and drain-cleaning services in return for the assessments paid by the rate-payers, but now these services are being privatised imposing new charges or responsibilities on the ratepayers.
The Government has privatised the RM5.7 billion national sewerage system to Indah Water Consortium, proposes to privatise garbage-collection to impose charges directly on the people, and the latest idea from the Minister for Housing and Local Government, Datuk Dr. Ting Chew Peh, is that the people should be directly responsible for the cleanliness of drains outside their doorsteps.
As the local government authorities are discontinuing these services for which ratepayers had paid their assessment rates, imposing new charges and responsibilities on the ratepayers, it is only fair that there should be a general reduction in the assessment rates by all local authorities in the country.
The MCA Minister for Housing and Local Government, Dr.Ting Chew Peh, is being very irresponsible in not proposing in Cabinet that there should be a nation-wide reduction in the assessment rates imposed by local government authorities in view of the privatisation and reduction of many services previously provided by the local government authorities.
Why MCA Youth delegation dared not raise with Mahathir the rotation of senior Cabinet posts and top government positions like the rotation of the post of Sabah Chief Minister?
On Tuesday, the MCA Youth had a dialogue with the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed on what it described as the main issues and concerns of the Chinese community.
From the issues which the MCA Youth raised with the Prime Minister, it is clear that the MCA Youth does not know what are the real concerns of the Chinese community.
This reminds me of the 1990 general elections, when the MCA could only get 20 to 25 per cent of Chinese electoral support, and MCA leaders had to engage professional consultants to conduct a study to find out why the MCA did so badly in the general elections.
I do not know whether the issues raised by the MCA Youth in its dialogue with the Prime Ministers the result of this study by the professional consultants after the 1990 general elections, but it is clear that the MCA Youth had failed to address many major and pressing concerns of the Chinese community.
On Chinese education, the MCA Youth dared not even discuss the question of Chinese Independent Secondary Schools or the development of mother-tongue education at the tertiary level.
On Chinese primary schools, the MCA Youth was unable to grapple with the fundamental problems which, unresolved, would jeopardise the character of Chinese primary schools without having to invoke Section 21 (2) of the Education Act 1961. These issues include the shortage of trained teachers, appointment of principals not versed in Mandarin and the latest proposal on comprehensive schools.
There are many other omissions which are major and most unbelievable.
For instance, why didn’t MCA Youth raise with the Prime Minister the rotation of senior Cabinet posts like Finance, Home Ministry, Education and top government, appointments like Chief Justice, Chief Secretary, University Vice-Chancellors like the rotation of the post of Sabah Chief-Minister among the three main communities in the State?
Furthermore, has MCA Youth no views about the problem of corruption and financial scandals in the country – like the RM30 billion Bank Negara foreign exchange speculation losses since 1992?
Does MCA Youth want Dr.Mahathir to believe that the Chinese community are so self-centred and lack nationalistic aspirations that they are not concerned about issues like corruption, financial scandals, justice, morality, democracy, human rights, a free press, an independent judiciary, an impartial Election Commission or an efficient civil service?
Liong Sik is the worst of the four MCA Ministers in terms of Ministerial performance and capability
MCA has four Cabinet Ministers, but the worst MCA Minister in terms of Ministerial performance and capability is none other than the MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik as Transport Minister.
If a list is be drawn up about the failures and bunglings of each MCA Minister and his Ministry, Liong Sik will have the longest list, whether it be the unresolved motor insurance crisis where motorists with cars over ten years of age have difficulty in getting insurance cover; the car tint scandal where hundreds and even thousands of motorists were summoned for having tinted glasses on their vehicles a few months before the Ministry allowed 50 per cent tinted glasses; the fiascos over the third brake light, the crash helmet reflector, backseat safety belts, breathelysers, and a host of others.
Malaysians are entitled to ask how the country can afford to have a bungler as a Transport Minister whose inefficiency and incompetence have repeatedly caused inconvenience and hardships to the people.
MCA’s 45th Anniversary Special Publication is history of MCA’s ‘watery accounts’
In commemoration with its 45th anniversary, MCA has come out with a special publication which has aptly been described as a history of MCA’s ‘watery accounts’.
MCA has very lengthy ‘watery accounts’ which its 45th Anniversary Special Publication on its history has failed to fully explain, and for this reason, no independent, honourable or credible historian can issue a certificate to endorse it as a ‘true and fair history’ of the MCA.
The MCA’s Special Publication on its 45-year history, for instance, has failed to address the following great failures, scandals and betrayals of the MCA in its history:
* Its opposition to the proposed Merdeka University;
* Its support for the proposed demolition of Bukit China by Malacca Chief Minister, Rahim Tamby Cik in 1984;
* Its betrayal not only of the MCA members but also of the Chinese community in the RM1.5 billion Co-operative Finance Scandal; and
* The fiascos of the ‘Chinese saviour’ in MCA Michael Chen – and ‘Economic Wizard’ -Tan Koon Swan.
The MCA leaders are hoping that with its history of fisacos, scandals and betrayals, the people will have a short memory. The next general elections will show whether the MCA leaders are right or whether the people will prove the MCA leaders wrong by demonstrating that when they decide whether to give their vote to a political party, they also judge its political record and party history.