Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, at the Subang DAP Branch Anniversary held at, Subang new village, Selangor on Friday, September 16, 1994 at 8 pm.
DAP warns MCA of a DAP nation-wide campaign to expose MCA’s second donation drive scandal to cheat the Chinese community to use the name of Chinese Independent Secondary Schools to raise funds for itself, if MCA extends its ‘false use of public name for private gain’ campaign beyond Perak and Penang.
Last weekend in Perak the DAP exposed the second MCA Chinese Independent Secondary School donation drive scandal where the MCA made ‘false use of public name for private gain’ to cheat the Chinese community to use the name of Chinese Independent Second¬ary Schools to raise funds for itself.
There has been two reactions from, the MCA leadership, firstly that the DAP is trying to damage the MCA donation drive to raise funds for Chinese Independent Secondary Schools; and secondly, that the MCA leadership would not apologise for its second Chinese Independent Secondary School donation drive scandal, which is presently-confined to Perak and Penang, but would extend it country-wide to all the other States.
DAP assures the MCA that DAP would not undermine the MCA ‘campaign’ to raise funds for Chinese
Independent Secondary Schools but the DAP would not allowthe MCA to ‘falsely use public name for private gain’ and cheat the Chinese community to use the name of Chinese Independent Secondary Schools to raise funds for itself.
DAP assures the MCA that the DAP would not undermine the MCA campaign to raise funds for Chinese Independent Secondary Schools but the DAP would not allow the MCA to cheat the Chinese community to use the name of Chinese Independent Secondary Schools to raise funds for itself.
If MCA’s donation drive among the Chinese community is really meant to raise funds for Chinese Independent Secondary Schools, the DAP is prepared to ask the Chinese community to give support – although the DAP is of the view that the primary duty of the MCA with four MCA Ministers is to get the Government and Cabinet to allocate regular annual funds for the Chinese Independent Secondary Schools.
However, if the MCA’s donation drive for Chinese Independent Secondary Schools is a ‘fraudulent use of public purpose for private gain’, then it is the duty not only of the DAP but every right-thinking and honourable Malaysian to expose such donation scandals.
The MCA leadership has up to now failed to give a satisfactory explanation for its Jempol MCA Division donation drive campaign, where Jempol MCA Division kept 75 per cent of the donations collected from the Chinese community purportedly for Chinese Independent Secondary Schools while handing over 25 per cent to the Chinese Independent Secondaiy Schools.
The MCA had threatened legal action against the DAP for exposing the Jempol MCA Division donation drive scandal, but when I gave the MCA leadership three days to sue me for defamation, the MCA backed down from its threat!
Now, in Penang and Perak, the MCA has committed another donation drive scandal.
MCA President Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik had promised that the 600,000 MCA members will each donate RM10 for Chinese Independent Secondary Schools and in this manner raise RM6 million.
However, what the MCA is doing in Penang and Perak is to sell this RM10-per-MCA-mernber coupon – strictly meant to be sold inside MCA – to non-MCA members, with two objectives;
* to get the Chinese community to raise the RM6 million for Chinese Independent Secondary Schools, so that MCA members do not have to donate a single sen while the MCA can claim that the RM6 million are the donation of 600,000 MCA members at RM10 per member; and
* secondly, to use the name of Chinese Independent Secondary Schools to raise funds for the MCA’s own purpose. From the example of the Jempol MCA Division donation drive scandal, it is likely that the MCA hopes to raise some RM25 to RM30 million from the selling of the RM10-per-MCA-member coupon as donation to Chinese Independent Secondary Schools, so that it could hand over RM6 million to Chinese Independent Secondary Schools while keeping between RM19 to RM25 million for itself!
DAP has been accused of trying to ‘destroy’ the MCA’s campaign to raise RM10 donation each from its 600,000 MCA members.
The latest MCA donation drive raises the question whether the majority of its claimed 600,000 MCA members are ‘phantom members’ and whether MCA has 200,000 paying members.
How could this be possible? Is the MCA leadership suggesting that the DAP has become so influential in the MCA administration and organisation that the DAP can ‘destroy’ its campaign to get everyone of its 600,000 MCA members to donate RM10 for Chinese Independent Secondary Schools?
If the MCA accused me of trying to ‘destroy’ the MCA plot, to ‘falsely using the name of the public for private profit’ and cheat the Chinese community by making use of the name of Chinese Independent Secondary Schools to raise funds for itself, I am prepared to plead guilty.
Frankly speaking, this scandal raises one pertinent question. Although, MCA claims to be the third largest Chinese political party in the world, after China and Taiwan, and having 600,000 members, does MCA really have 600,000 members? Or are the majority of its claimed 600,000 members ‘phantom members’?
If MCA has 600,000 members, and each is asked to donate RM10 for Chinese Independent Secondary Schools, then why should the MCA leadership resort to the dishonest and dishonourable act of asking the Chinese community and non-MCA members to buy their coupons which are reserved for MCA members?
I doubt that MCA has even 200,000 paying members. This is where the MCA’s inflation of its membership figures has put the MCA leadership in a spot!
Be that as it may, the MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik should publicly apologise to the Chinese community for the Jempol MCA Division donation drive scandal as well as the 600,000 MCA Members RM10-per-rnember donation drive scandal, and promise that the MCA would not repeat such ‘making use of public name for private profit’ donation scandals in future.
I wish to address the second reaction of the MCA leadership – that it would extend its second donation drive scandal to other states.
DAP warns MCA of a DAP nation-wide campaign to expose MCA’s second donation drive scandal to cheat the Chinese community to use the name of Chinese Independent Secondary Schools to raise funds for itself if MCA extends its ‘false use of public name for private gain’ campaign beyond Perak and Penang.