Speech by Parliament Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, at the fourth Penang ‘Tanjong 3’ Marathon Thousand-People Dinner held at Penang Chinese Town Hall on Thursday, 6th October at 8 p.m.
DAP calls on all Cabinet Ministers, Chief Ministers and Mentris Basar to publicly declare their assets to prove that they had not accumulated unusual and extraordinary wealth completely disproportionate to their known sources of income like Tan Sri Rahim Tamby Cik
Malacca and National UMNO Youth have called for the dropping of Tan Sri Rahim Tamby Cik from the next general elections as he would be a liability if renominated as a candidate.
However, both Malacca and national UMNO Youth have scrupulously avoided mentioning whether they are specifically referring to the allegation of Rahim having an affair with a 15-year-old girl or the ten police reports lodged by DAPSY National Chairman and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Guan Eng on Rahim’s extraordinary wealth completely disproportionate to his known sources of income, or to both, when they wanted Rahim to be dropped in the next general elections.
It would be most unfortunate if Malacca and National UMNO Youth, as well s the UMNO Supreme Council, use the allegation of Rahim having as affair with a 15-year-old schoolgirl so that they do not have to take a stand on corruption and the integrity of public leaders.
Is this because Ten Sri Rahim Tamby Cik would not be the only government political leader who would be arrested if the Anti-Corruption Agency is given the ‘green-light’ to prosecute all political leaders and top public officials who have accumulated unusual and extraordinary wealth completely disproportionate to their know sources of income?
It is very significant that all the recent statements by UMNO and UMNO Youth leaders scrupulously avoided the issue of the extraordinary wealth of Rahim Tamby Cik. Does this mean that if not for the allegation of Rahim Tamby Cik. Dose this mean that if not for the allegation of Rahim having an affair with a 15-year-old girl, the UMNO and UMNO Youth leader would have continued to close their eyes about the unusual and extraordinary wealth of the Malaccan Chief Minister?
If Rahim Tamby Cik is to step down as Malacca Chief Minister, then let him be an example to all political leaders and top government officials that they have to publicly account for their unusual and extraordinary wealth which are completely disproportionate to their known and legal sources of income.
For this reason, the DAP calls on all Cabinet Ministers, Chief Ministers and Mentris Besar to publicly declare their assets to prove that they had not accumulated unusual and extraordinary wealth completely disproportionate to their knows sources of income like Tan Sri Rahim Tamby Cik.
This is why, today, the DAP has issued this fourth Declaration on Nation-Building Policies for Malaysia, entitled ‘A Claen and Accountable Government’.
I call on the Barisan Nasional Government to endorse this Declaration on ‘A Clean and Accountable Government’ and in particular to immediately adopt the following four measures to ensure that the country has learnt from the Rahim TaMby Cik scandals over his extraordinary and unusual wealth:.
DECLARE Corruption as the country’s Public Enemy Number One;
ELEVATE the Anti-Corruption Agency into an Anti-Corruption Commission which is completely autonomous of the government and answerable Only to ParIiament;
LEGISLATE a completely new Anti-Corruption with expanded powers and increased penalties to stamp out corruption, including powers to confis¬cate ill-gotten gains, and unusual wealth accumu- lated by political Ieaders and government officials which are completely disproportionate to their known sources of income;
ENACTMENT of a ‘sunshine law’ requiring political leaders, elected representatives and top civil servants to publicly declare their family assets.
The history and record of Gerakan and MCA show that these two political parties had never taken a stand against corruption or used their position in Government to fight against corruption, as proposing laws and institutions to give real powers to the battle against corruption.
Gerakan, for instance, had declared publicly that the Rahim Tamby Cik scandals is strictly an UMNO matter to be resolved by UMNO when it is a national issue transcending political party as it affects the good name of Malaysia, c government and he issue of integrity of public of government officials.
This is another example of the irrelevance and margin¬alisation of Gerakan and MCA in the highest decision-making process in the Barisan Nasional Government.
If Mahathir had been serious with his 1981 Motto of ‘Clean, Efficient and Trustworthy’ Government, Liong Sik, Samy Vella and Rahim Tamby Cik would have ceased to be Ministers or Chief Minister ago
Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed has become the longest-serving Prime Minister in Malaysia, breaking Tunku Abdul Rahman’s 13-year record as Malaysian Premier two months ago.
All Malaysians will remember that when he first became Prime Minister in 1981, his first promise to the people is to establish a ‘Clean, Efficient and ‘Trustworthy’ government.
The Mahathir promise of a ‘Clean, Efficient and Trust¬worthy’ Administration has been observed in its breach in the past 13 years, and this is why Mahathir and the Barisan leaders have stopped talking about the ‘ABC’ motto – ‘Amanah, Bersih and Cekap’ – as it has become a bad joke.
In fact, if Mahathir had been serious with his 1931 pledge of establishing a ‘Clean, Efficient and Trustworthy’ Government, Barisan Nasional leaders like Ling Liong Sik, Samy Vellu and Rahim Tamby Cik would have ceased to be Ministers of Chief Minister long ago.
Liong Sik, Samy Vellu and Rahim Tamby Cik are the standing symbols of the total collapse of the Mahathir pledge of a ‘Clean, Efficient and Trustworthy’ Government, and although Rahim is on his ‘last legs’ politically, there are many other Rahim Tamby Ciks in the Barisan Nasional – which explain why Barisan NTasional is not prepared to give full powers to Anti -Corruption Agency to arrest top government leaders who have acquired extraordinary wealth through illegal and improper means.
Liong Sik is the epitome of inefficiency, incompefence and irresponsibility in public service
I will not touch on Rahim as I have already dealt with him. Let us now take Liong Sik first. He is now the very pitome of inefficiency, incompetence and irresponsibility in the public service.
There is no Cahinet Minister in Malaysia or anywhere in Liong the world who can comprete with Liong Sik for incompetence, inefficiency and. irresponsibility, as shown by his following record:
Liong Sik is the worst Cabinet Minister who had played the most truant from his Parliamentary duties.
At the last Parliamentary meeting, the DAP MP for Petaling Jaya, Dr. Rua Kia Soong, asked how many Parliamentary meetings Liong Sik had attended since the 1990 general elections.
The answer is 24 days out of 272 days – which works out to six days in Parliament per year, which would be mostly the formal functions the official opening of Parliament by the Yang di Pertuan Agong, the budget speech by the Finance Minister, Constitution Amendment Bills which require every Minister and MP to be present to provide the requisite two-thirds majority, and when the Prime Minister appeared for some important motion like the Second Perspective Plan, the sixth Malaysia Plan and the Sixth Malaysia Plan Mid-Term Review.
Liong Sik had never answered a single question in Parliament during question time since he became Cabinet Minister, unlike Mahathir, Anwar Ibrahim or even Samy Vellu, making the parliamentary performance and record of the MCA President even worse than any ordinary UMNO Parliamentary Secretary.
His total lack of a sense of moral responsibility for the avoidable disasters, mishaps and scandals in his Ministry, most notably the fire arid accident-prone Kuala Lumpur international Airport despite a record which qualifies him to enter the Guinness Book of Records, such as six airport fires in two years, two goldbar robberies airport cargo complex in four months and three ‘near miss’ collisions at the airport runway between aircrafts in three weeks!
Liong Sik has also become the ‘despair’ not only of port-users but also. ordinary motorcylists, motorists, lorry drivers and commercial vehicle owners, with half-baked and new-fangled regulations and contradictory rules, like the Latest one on smoke-emission tests where Police refused to recognise the certificiation of the JPJ!
If the word ‘efficient’ in Mahathir’s motto of Clean, Efficient and Trustworthy’ Government has real meaning, Liong Sik would have been removed as Transport Minister long ago.
The Mahathir administration cannot claim to be ‘trustworthy’ so long as Samy Vellu is with impunity to hijack nine million Telekom shares from MAIKA Holdings meant for the educa-tional upliftment of the Indian community?
If the Mahathir government fails to measure up to its’ own yardsticks of being ‘clean and efficient’, what about its third, test of being ‘trustworthy’?
The Mahathir administration cannot claim to be ‘trustworthy’ so long as the MIC President and the Minister for Energy, Posts and Telecommunications, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu is allowed with impunity to hijack nine million Telekom shares from MAIKA Holdings meant for the educational upliftment of the Indian community?
Last week, the MIC removed former Petaling Java Barat MIC Branch Chairman, V. Subramaniam – better known as “Barat Maniam” – as MIC headquarters Public Relations Committee Chairman.
This was after Subramaniam circulated a 16-page confession, together with documents, such as bank statements and receipts, to all Ministers, Deputy Ministers, MPs, Chief Minis-ters and Mentris Besar detailing how Samy Vellu destroyed evidence and fabricated evidence by rewriting new accounts, rewrit¬ing accounts books, creating backdated receipts and vouchers, procuring new share scrips, destroying old records to frustrate Anti-Corruption Agency investigations and how he had assisted Samy Vellu to carry out this operation.
It is most noteworthy Samy Vellu did not expel Barat Maniam as a MIC member for he knew that this would d end up as a court case involving unfair and unlawful expulsion of his MIC membership, which will bring out in court the entire MAIKA Telekom shares hijacking scandal, and Samy Vellu’s ‘cover-up’ opera¬tion by destroying evidence and fabricating accounts and documents to frustrate the ACA.
The MAIKA Telekom, shares hijacking scandal has become an ACA in its impotence to take action against Samy Vellu, and so long, as the MATKA Telekom shares hijacing scandal remains unresolved, the Mahathir Government cannot claim to be trustworthy’.
The Mahathir triple pledges of being ‘clean, efficiont trustworthy’ have therefore all failed to pass the test of and time.