By Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjong, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Monday, 15th August 1994:
DAP declares that it does not oppose and will not sabotage MCA efforts to raise funds for Chinese Independent Secondary Schools but want MCA to account for every sen of its donations and hand all donations to Chinese Independent Secondary Schools
The MCA has no right to conduct the MCA jempol-style of donation drive, where the MCA handed less than 25 per cent of the donations it collected to the Chinese Independent Secondary Schools, while retaining for its own use more than 75 per cent of the donations which were collected in the name of Chinese Independent Secondary Schools.
I challenge Ting Chew Peh to give a single instance where the DAP has opposed or sabotaged MCA efforts to raise funds for Chinese Independent Secondary Schools and to explain how the DAP is carrying out such sabotage work.
I had only asked the MCA to explain three items of its donations for Chinese Independent Secondary Schools, and when the MCA leadership give satisfactory explanation, this is the end of the matter.
The reason why the MCA Chinese Independent Secondary Schools donation drive has developed into a scandal is because the MCA leadership has not only been unable to give simple answers to the questions about the three items of MCA donations for Chinese Independent Secondary Schools, but the expose of the MCA Jempol-style of donations for Chinese Independent Secondary Schools has shocked Malaysians about the honesty, integrity and accountability of MCA donation drive for Chinese Independent Secondary Schools.
Can Dr. Ting Chew Peh explain why the MCA cannot give simple answers to the following three items about MCA donation drive for Chinese Independent Secondary Schools:
*Firstly, the RM3,188,888.88 which the Liong Sik announced at the MCA nation-wide donation launching-off ceremony in Seremban on May 27 as having been collected. Where is this money now.
*Secondly, the RM6 million from the 600,000 MCA members on the basis of RM10 per member, which Liong Sik said would be collected by the end of the year.
Are the MCA members paying RM10 each, or is the Chinese community being asked to donate RM6 million so that the MCA can donate it to Chinese Independent Secondary Schools in the name of the 600,000 MCA members.
From the MCA Jempol Division donation scandal, are MCA divisions and branches authorised to collect donations by making use of the name of Chinese Independent Secondary schools, where they need only hand over 25 per cent of the donations for their own use?
*Thirdly, the collection from the big donors in the Chinese community, making use of the tax-exempt status of Huaren Fund account, in the ten months from May to Chinese New Year next year before the handing over of all the monies collected to the 60 Chinese Independent Secondary Schools, which should easily exceed RM50 million.
The more the MCA, making use of its government position, could collect for Chinese Independent Secondary Schools, the better it is for the Chinese Independent Secondary Shools, and the DAP will applaud the MCA efforts subject to two qualifications:
* Firstly, there must be full accountability for evey sen of the donation drive and that there should be no MCA Jempol-type of donation scandal; and
* Secondly, the four MCA Ministers must not forget that their primary responsibility is to get the Cabinet to make regular annual financial allocations to Chinese Independent Secondary Schools in recognition, in the words of Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, of them being ‘future assets of the nation.’
For this reason, I would advise MCA national leaders to stop making baseless attacks on the DAP and to address the legitimate questions about the MCA donation drive for Chinese Independent Secondary Schools which the MCA leaders had been evading up to now.
Lim Kit Siang
Foreword – for cartoon book
Dap’s call for ‘Big Libreralisation’ is the realization of the its Malaysian Malaysia ideal proclaimed during its formation in 1966
This cartoon book, the collaboration between the youngest political cartoonist in Malaysia Hew Kuan Yeow and DAP MP for Kampar, James Wong has attempted a theme never tired in Malaysian cartoon history and they have succeeded very well.
After the first political cartoon book by Hew Kuan Yeow entitled ‘ Horse Year Comment on Horse’, this is a most ambitious effort to explain to Malaysians through easy-to –under-stand cartoons the importance of the next general elections.
Why should Malaysian bother about the next general elections when things look so good. Does it matter if the DAP is wiped out in the next general elections, as claimed by MCA leaders who want even to capture DAP’s traditionsal ‘safe seats’?
What were the conditions which made possible the ‘Little Liberalisation’ of government nation-building policies in the past three years? Who is most responsible for the ‘Little Liberalisation’ – MCA, Gerakan or DAP?
Should Malaysians be content with the ‘Little Liberalisation ‘ of the past three years?
Why has DAP decided to make ‘Major Liberalisation’ its primary theme in the next general elections? What is the connection with the DAP Battle of Tanjong 3 with the DAP’s campaign for ‘Big Liberalisation’?
What is the connection between Mahathir’s Vision 2020 proclaimed in 1991 and the DAP’s Malaysian Malaysia’ promulgated in 1996?
All these difficult questions are answered simply in cartoon from in this marvelous publication.
Through the cartoons, the reader is taken to the final conclusion and message that the DAP’s call for ‘Major Liberalisation’ is the realization of the ideal for a Malaysian Malaysia proclaimed by the DAP since its formation in 1996.
All Malaysians, who through the past 28 years, had provided solid and loyal support to DAP in the struggle for a Malaysian Malaysia where there is an equal place under the Malaysian sun for all Malaysians, regardless of race, and where Malaysians are no more divided into bumiputeras and non-bumiputeras, must buy a copy of this marvelous cartoon book.
This cartoon book is not only to be enjoyed, its message is even more important. It should be a guide for Malaysians as to how they should vote in the next general elections.
This cartoon book has another purpose. It should be kept as a reference for our children and children’s children so that when they grow up, they know the struggle and sacrifices which we in this generation have undergone in order to defend their citizenship rights and to establish a Malaysian Malaysia.