Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, at the DAP Tanjong 3 Committee meeting held at Penang DAP hqrs on Thursday, 22nd September 1994 at 3.30 pm.
MCA plans to bring forward its distribution of donations to the 60 Chinese Independent Secondary Schools, which would be done in batches, because MCA leaders believe that the general elections could be held by November.
Yesterday, it was reported that the MCA plans to bring forward its distribution in batches of donations to the 60 Chinese Independent Secondary Schools because MCA leaders believe that the general elections could be held by November.
Earlier, the MCA leadership decided to distribute the donations it was collecting for the Chinese Independent Secondary Schools during the Chinese New Year next year, as it had expected that general elections would be called in late March or early April next year.
This is the best proof that the MCA’s donation drive for the Chinese Independent Secondary Schools is purely politically-motivated aimed to get votes in the next general elections, and not because there is a ‘genuine change of heart’ among the top MCA leadership that Chinese education, Chinese Independent Secondary Schools and Chinese primary schools should be accorded full recognition by the government and enjoy a proper place in the mainstream of the national education system.
With four Ministers, the MCA should have made use of their Cabinet membership to get the Barisan Nasional Government to secure regular annual allocations to the Chinese Independent Secondary Schools so as to relieve the financial burden of the Chinese community who had in the past four decades paid a ‘second income tax’ to single-handedly fund the costs of Chinese independent Secondary Schools as well as the development of Chinese primary schools.
However, if the MCA is honest in its donation drive and will hand over every sen it collects to the Chinese Independent Secondary Schools, the fact that its ulterior and primary motive is geared to get votes in the coming general elections could be overlooked.
Unfortunately, from the past two months of its donation drive for Chinese Independent Secondary Schools, it is clear that the MCA is not being honest and has no intention of handing over every sen it had collected for the Chinese Independent Secondary Schools.
This could be seen from two MCA Chinese Independent Secondary Schools donation drive scandals which had been exposed by the DAP, namely:
* The Jempol MCA Division donation scandal where the MCA kept for itself 75 per cent of the donations which it had collected from the Chinese community in Bahau, Negri Sembilan purportedly for donations to Chinese Independent Secondary Schools, while handing over only 25 per cent of the donations to the Chinese Independent Secondary Schools;
* The MCA ‘RM10 per MCA member’ donation drive to collect RM6 million from its 600,000 MCA members for the Chinese Independent Secondary Schools, but these ‘RM10 per MCA member’ coupons are being sold to the general non-MCA public in Penang and Perak.
In both these MCA donation drive scandals, the MCA had not been able, to deny that it had made use of the name of the Chinese Independent Secondary Schools to raise collections from the Chinese community, but had not accounted or handed every sen of the donations collected to the Chinese Independent Secondary Schools.
In fact, from, the Jempol MCA Division donation scandal, it is clear that the MCA made a handsome profit for itself from such a donation drive – where it handed only 25 per cent of the donation proceeds to Chinese Independent Secondary Schools while keeping 75 per cent of the donations for its own use!
I do not think it is possible to find another business which is so profitable making 75 per cent clean profit, with no capital whatsoever!
MCA must fully account for four items of its donation drive for Chinese Independent Secondary Schools.
This is not the only scandalous aspect of the MCA donation drive for the Chinese Independent Secondary Schools.
Up to now, the MCA has refused to fully account to the Chinese community on four items of its donation drive for Chinese Independent Secondary Schools, namely:
* Firstly, the RM3,188,888.88 which the MCA President, Datuk Seri Dr. Ling Liong Sik announced at the MCA nation-wide donation launching-off ceremony in Seremban on May 27 as having been collected already;
* 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;
* Thirdly, as the MCA is selling the ‘RM10 per MCA member’ coupon to the general non-MCA public, without any limit or check to the sales, there must be a full and proper accounting on this item which could easily come to some RM30 million; and
* Fourthly, the collection from the big donors in the Chinese community, making use of the tax-exempt status of Huaren Fund account, which should easily be in the region between RM20 million to RM30 million.
The DAP will not undermine or oppose any honest, and genuine MCA donation drive for Chinese Independent Secondary Schools, but I hope that the MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik, will ensure that the MCA is prepared to open all its books to account for every sen it had collected in its donation drive and that every sen would be handed over to the Chinese Independent Secondary Schools.