Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, at the Perak DAP State Dinner at Moongate Restaurant, Ipoh on 25th June 1994 at 8 p.m. to commemorate his 25th anniversary as elected Member of Parliament
The 51-man MCA Youth delegation led by MCA Youth leader, Datuk Chan Kong Choy, should be hauled up before the MCA Disciplinary Committee for buckling under pressure and repudiating the MCA and MCA Youth stand all these years on the scrapping of quotas
The MCA has entered into a new phase of its political development on the occasion of its 45th anniversary – playing its most marginalised role in the Barisan Nasional.
When MCA Youth Leader, Chan Kong Choy had to retract his press conference announcement that the MCA Youth delegation had raised the quota issue with the Prime Minister, it marked a new phase of political development for the MCA and MCA Youth.
What Chan Kong Choy had done was in fact a repudiation of the stand taken by MCA and MCA Youth as well as speeches and statements by MCA and MCA Youth leaders, including MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik, all these years calling for the abolition of the quota system.
If the MCA is serious about, party policy and discipline, the 51-man MCA Youth delegation headed by Chan Kong Choy should be hauled up before the MCA Disciplinary Committee for publicly buckling under pressure and unilaterally repudiating the MCA and MCA Youth stand all these years on the scrapping of quotas.
If there is no action from the MCA Disciplinary Committee or response from the MCA national leadership, then it could only mean that Chan Kong Choy’s public repudiation of MCA and MCA Youth stand all these years on the scrapping of quotas has received the ‘green light’ from the top MCA leaders.
Is Chan Kong Choy the first example of ‘MCA Baru’ leader – who dare not talk about quotas whether inside or outside Government?
In this case, we are then seeing a ‘MCA Baru’ – in keeping with ‘UMNO Baru’ and ‘Melayu Baru’ being advocated by the new UMNO leaders.
This ‘MCA Baru’ will be different from the old MCA. In the MCA ‘Lama’, MCA and MCA Youth leaders talk loudly and vociferously about justice and equality, the abolition of quotas and to stop dividing Malaysians into bumiputeras and non-bumiputeras to get Chinese support and votes – although inside Government, Cabinet and Parliament, the MCA dare not voice these views.
In the ‘MCA Baru’, MCA and MCA Youth leaders would not dare to publicly talk about MCA demanding for the scrapping of quotas or the abolition of division of Malaysians into bumipu-teras and non-bumiputeras.
Is Chan Kong Choy the first example of the ‘MCA Baru’ leader, who would not dare to talk about quotas whether inside or outside Government?
Let me advise the MCA and MCA Youth leaders that if, for reasons best known to themselves, they have decided to abandon their earlier stand that quotas should be scrapped, then it should be honest enough to call a Special MCA General Assembly to formally adopt such a resolution so that all Malaysians know where they stand on the issue.
I had been waiting for a strong answer to my statement early this week that with Datuk Seri Dr. Ling Liong Sik as party president, MCA has been reduced to the most marginalized role in the Barisan Nasional and that under Chan Kong Choy, MCA Youth has become the most ‘boneless’ movement in MCA Youth history.
There were only abuses and falsehoods from MCA and MCA Youth counter-charging the DAP for being ‘marginalized’ and ‘boneless’, but no attempt to deny my charges that the MCA is now playing its most marginalised role in Barisan Nasional and that the MCA Youth is the most ‘boneless’ movement in MCA Youth history.
This is most disappointing, and the DAP has no intention of descending to this level of argument, which is like standard two children arguing and scolding each other.
If DAP leaders had been guilty of any slight financial impropriety, they would have been arrested and prosecuted – and MCA and MCA Youth would not have to lodge close to a hundred police reports over the DAP Save Bukit China Fund
I find it even more laughable that the MCA and MCA Youth should accuse me of having ‘no backbone’. I do not think there is anyone in MCA or MCA Youth who is qualified to raise the question of ‘having backbone’ with me or other DAP leaders -definitely not Chan Kong Choy or Ling Liong Sik.
In one of the MCA replies, I was accused of having ‘no backbone’ because I dare not respond to Liong Sik’s challenge to go to any police station to lodge police report against the MCA President for impropriety over Bolton Finance or any other matter.
Why should I lodge a police report against Liong Sik in connection with his still unexplained Bolton Finance scandal, when a police report on the matter had already been lodged.
It is understandable that MCA leaders have great confidence in the police and Anti-Corruption Agency, because there is a long history of ‘the police and ACA providing immunity to Barisan Nasional leaders.
Former MCA President, Tan Koon Swan, would not have been arrested and charged in Malaysia if he had not been arrested, charged and jailed for criminal breach of trust in Singapore first.
What, action, for instance, has the ACA taken against MIC President, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu over the MAIKA Telekom shares hijacking scandal or the Malacca Chief Minister, Tan Sri Rahim Tamby Cik for having extraordinary wealth completely disproportionate to his known sources of income?
The most recent example of the impotence of ACA is the withdrawal of seven corruption charges against Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan without any reasons being given and the acquittal of Jeffrey for failing to declare RM40 million of his assets in Hong Kong when he was ordered to do so by the ACA – a few days before the announcement that he would be made Senator and Federal Deputy Minister.
Both these actions are ‘open slaps in the face’ of ACA and they must have completely demoralised the ACA as far as investigations against those with high political connections.
Opposition leaders, on the other hand, get the opposite treatment. If DAP leaders had been guilty of any slight financial impropriety, they would have been arrested and prosecuted – and there would have been no need for MCA and MCA Youth farce of lodging close to a hundred police reports over the DAP Save Bukit China Fund, for instance.
In January this year, when the Sydney Sunday Telegraph carried a report that Australian spies had been bribing opposition politicians in Malaysia, the Police Headquarters itself lodged a police report to initiate investigations. Police investigations were abandoned when a subsequent report in the Canberra Times reported that it were the UMNO political leaders who were receiving bribes from Austrlian spies.
The present MCA leadership is the result of the most scandalous money-politics in MCA history in the power struggle between the Neo Yee Pan and Tan Koon Swan factions
MCA leaders spout a superior air and claim they are clean and even assert that unlike UMNO, there is no ‘money politics’ in MCA – as if corruption, abuses of power and vote-buying are only to be found in UMNO!
In actual fact, the present MCA leadership is the result of the most scandalous ‘money polities’ in MCA history!
Who practised ‘money polities’ in the MCA power struggle between the Neo Yee Pan and Tan Koon Swan factions from 1984-1986? In fact, MCA leaders went to the Subang International Airport to give Tan Koon Swan a ‘hero’s welcome’ after he was first arrested and charged in Singapore in 1986 for criminal breaches of trust – precisely because the MCA leaders including Ling Liong Sik knew that they owed their positions in MCA to Koon Swan’s ‘money polities’!
I would advise the MCA Ministers and leaders therefore not to pretend that unlike UMNO, all are ‘saints’ in MCA!
DAP calls for an All-Party Conference to follow up on the UMNO constitution amendment to wipe out money politics in general elections
Although UMNO has called a Special General Assembly and amended its party constitution to check money politics, it is dubious whether this by itself could eliminate money politics in the country.
If the UMNO leaders are sincere in wanting to eliminate money politics, then they should be sincere in wanting to elimiante money politics in general elections in the country.
If UMNO leaders are prepared to admit that money politics in UMNO ends in corruption, why are they not prepared to admit the even more serious problem money politics in general elections – which corrupted the will of the electorate?
As the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad is on a two-week overseas leave, I call on the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to follow up on the UMNO Constitution amendment by calling for an All-Party Conference to wipe out money politics in general elections.
This All-Party Conference should be held immediately so that its proposals to curb money politics in general elections could be framed in legislative form to be submitted and adopted by Parliament before the end of its July meeting.
This timing is important as the next general elections are expected to be held soon, in the next few months or latest by early next year and such legislation to eliminate money politics in general elections must be in place before Parliament is dissolved.