Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, at the Kepala Sawit Branch DAP Anniversary Dinner, Kepala Sawit, Johore on Thursday, July 14, 1994 at 8 p.m.
Choo Ting is making use of me to send a ‘message’ to ask Lim Keng Yaik not to be Gerakan President for 15 years and to vacate the post so that Choo Ting could move upwards and get a chance to become a Federal Minister
Last Sunday, at the DAPSY National Conference in Kuala Lumpur, I said I was seriously considering not offering myself for the post of DAP Secretary-General in the next DAP Party Congress in 1996 as I would have been in this office for 27 years.
I explained that I would not be quitting politics as I would continue in the DAP struggle for a Malaysian Malaysia, but may be, the time has come for a new DAP Secretary-general to be appointed in the next Party Congress.
I said that no firm and final decision need be taken now as the next DAP Party Congress will only be held in 1996 and requested that there should not be a discussion or debate on the subject and that all party leaders, members and branches should refrain from issuing any statement or getting involved in any public discussion on the subject.
Any full discussion on the subject should wait until the next Party Congress in 1996.
I want to thank party leaders, members and branches for accepting my advice and respecting my wishes in not getting involved in any public discussion on the issue, as at present, the one and only issue before the Party is how to prepare for the most difficult and challenging general elections in party history – whether it is held this year or next year.
However, the MCA and Gerakan leaders seem to be even more concerned than DAP leaders, members and branches over this issue making it a classic case of the Emperor does not feel urgent, but the eunuch feels urgent’!
The Gerakan Deputy President and Deputy Minister for Works, Kerk Choo Ting, even declared that I had served too long as DAP Secretary-general for 25 years already, and that “normally in a political party which functions democratically”, a top party leader would not serve for such a long period.
When Kerk Choo Ting said that I have remained too long as DAP Secretary-General, his real message is to tell Datuk Seri Dr. Lim Keng Yaik that he should not try to be Gerakan President for 15 years and that Keng Yaik should vacate the post of Gerakan President at the Gerakan general meeting next month so that Choo Ting could move up the ladder and have an opportunity to become Federal Minister.
I understand Choo Ting’s ‘frustrations’ and his ‘special effort’ in making use of me to send his message to Keng Yaik. In bringing Choo Ting’s ‘real intentions’ out into the open, I hope Keng Yaik should know ‘ what to do’ at the Gerakan annual general meeting next month and should not continue to block Choo Ting’s ‘dream’ to become Federal Minister.
Choo Ting is eminently qualified to replace Keng Yaik as Gerakan President, because Choo Tin has also shown that he has followed in Keng Yaik’s footsteps in telling lies.
Keng Yaik’s ability to create fiction and claim it as fact, like his scandalous allegation of a DAP-PAS Secret Jakarta Meeting on April 16, 1990, is unchallenged in the Malaysian political arena today.
However, Choo Ting is making very valiant efforts to emulate Keng Yaik is spinning falsehoods and passing them off as truth.
Recently, Choo Ting claimed that when I was detained in Kamunting Detention Centre from 1987-89 for the second time under the Internal Security Act, my family members’ approached him for help to secure my release.
This is pure fiction. My ‘family members’ never approached any one in the Barisan Nasional for help to secure my release – and in any event, if my ‘family members’ wanted to approach someone in the Barisan Nasional for help, Choo Ting would not be considered at all because of his iconsequence and irrelevance in the Barisan Nasional Government.
As Choo Ting has claimed that my release from detention was due to his ‘intervention’ with the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir, can he explain why I, together with DAP MP for Kota Melaka Lim Guan Eng, were the last two Operation Lalang detainees to be released in April 1989?
I for one would like to know who are these ‘family members’ of mine who had approached Choo Ting for help to secure my release and I give Choo Ting permission to name them publicity.
It is clear that Choo Ting has established his credentials to be Gerakan President as he has proved that he has Keng Yaik’s special ability to tell lies, and for this reason, Keng Yaik should step down as Gerakan President graciously and give way to Choo Ting at the next Gerakan general assembly.
DAP challenges Gerakan national leaders to a public debate on ‘Little Liberalisation’ and ‘Big Liberalisation’ to prove that Gerakan leaders are not only ‘the last to know, last to be conscious’ but even ‘unknowing and unconscious’
It is quite amusing reading Choo Ting’s criticism of DAP as being ‘last to know, last to be conscious’, when it is the Gerakan leaders who have proved not only to be last to know, last to be conscious’ as well as ‘unknowing and unconscious’ on the ‘Little Liberalisation’ in the past three years and the DAP’s demand for ‘Big Liberalisation’ in the past three years and the DAP’s demand for ‘Big Liberalisation’.
Choo Ting claims that the ‘Little Liberalisation’ – which in fact include ‘false Liberalisation’ – in the past three years is equivalent to ‘Big Liberalisation’.
DAP challenges Gerakan national leaders to a public debate on ‘Little Liberalisation’ and ‘Big Liberalisation’ to prove that Gerakan leaders are not only ‘the last to know, last to be conscious’ but even ‘unknowing and unconscious’.
I challenge Choo Ting to produce a list of the basic policy changes which the Barisan Nasional Government had adopted in the past three years to justify his claim that there is not only ‘Little Liberalisation’ but also ‘Big Liberalisation’ in Malaysia in the past three years.
Has the Barisan Nasional government agreed to repeal the Internal Security Act, the Official Secrets Act, the Printing Presses and Publications Act or to abandon the ‘ultimate objective’ of the National Education Policy?
I would be surprised if Choo Ting and the Gerakan national leaders dare to respond to the DAP challenge to a public debate on ‘Little Liberalisation’ and ‘Big Liberalisation’ – but we shall wait for the response or lack of response.
DAP Central Executive Committee next Monday will discuss Mahathir’s challenge to Opposition parties to amend party constitutions to ban money politics
The DAP Central Executive Committee at its meeting next Monday will discuss the challenge by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed to Opposition parties to amend party constitutions to ban money politics like UMNO.
The DAP does not suffer from the cancer of money politics which is rampant in UMNO, MCA, Gerakan and the other Barisan Nasional component parties but we take a very serious attitude about the need to root out money politics and corruption in Malaysian politics.
The first question all political parties must consider is whether the amendment of party constitutions to abolish money politics will be effective in any way to root out corruption an abuses of power by political leaders.
I do not think Malaysians will be so simple-minded as to believe that with the amendment of party constitutions to abolish money politics, corruption in Malaysian politics has disappeared.
If the fight against corruption, particularly against those in high political places, I so easy, then the Anti-Corruption Agency might as well be dissolved!
The next question is whether the Barisan Nasional Government is serious about fighting money politics and corruption of political leaders.
DAP will object to the appointment of Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan as Senator and Deputy Minister unless the Attorney-General and ACA make a clear statement that they had no basis whatsoever to charge him on seven counts of corruption
The appointment of Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan as Senator and Deputy Minister is a test case of the seriousness of the Barisan Nasional Government on political corruption.
DAP will object to the appointment of Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan as Senator and Deputy Minister unless the Attorney-General and the Anti-Corruption Agency make a clear statement that they had no basis whatsoever to charge him on seven counts of corruption.
If the Attorney-General and the ACA do not make such a clear statement, then DAP will object to Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan entering Dewan Rakyat.
In Parliament early this month, the Parliamentary Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Department, Othman Abdul said that the seven corruption charges against Dr. Jeffrey were withdrawn by the Attorney-General because the ACA failed to get approval from the Hong Kong court to obtain evidence.
This means that the Attorney-General had to withdraw the charges because of technical difficulties of getting evidence from Hong Kong. Although a person must be presumed innocent until proven guilty, as far as the Attorney-General and the ACA are concerned, Dr. Jeffrey had been guilty of the seven corruption charges which they could not prosecute because of technical difficulties.
In these circumstances, how could the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, appoint Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan as Senator and Deputy Minister – as announced by the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim recently?
If the Attorney-General and the ACA regard Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan as guilty of the seven corruption charges which they had to withdraw because of technical difficulties, the appointment of Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan as to whether the Prime Minister and the Barisan Nasional Government are serious about the war against corruption and abuses of power.
Such an appointment would also be a very pointed message to the ACA, that it should not waste time investigating corruption charges against those in high political places in the Barisan Nasional, for they enjoy unwritten immunity from prosecution even if ACA can prove corruption charges against them.
Mahathir should not appoint Dr. Jeffrey as Senator and Deputy Minister unless he can get the Attorney-General and ACA to come out with a statement declaring that there had been no basis whatsoever to charge Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan on the seven courts of corruption in the first place.