by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjong, Lim Kit Siang,in Petaling Jaya on Tuesday, January 24, 1995:
Call on Liong Sik to discipline the MCA National Publicity Bureau and direct it to stop its propaganda campaign of lies
The MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik, should discipline the MCA National Publicity Bureau and direct it to stop its propaganda campaign of lies.
The latest lie of the MCA National Publicity Bureau is its allegation that the Tanah Putih, Gua Musang land issue is a Land Acquisition Act issue involving land acquisition by the Kelantan State Government without compensation, when it is in fact a case of farmers illegally cultivating on state land.
I am surprised that up to now, I have not received any reply from the Secretary of the Gua Musang Branch of the National Smallholders Association, Cheong Tai Onn, to my letter two weeks ago asking him a very simple question – to confirm that this is not a case of the Kelantan State Government acquiring 1,000 acres of 500 Chinese smallholders at Tanah Putih, Gua Musang under the Land Acquisition Act without compensation.
I do not know why Cheong Tai Onn should find it so difficult to reply my simple question – whether the Tanah Putih, Gua Musang land case is a case of Land Acquisition Act or of illegal farming on state land, unless he is only interested in ‘playing MCA politics’ to try to thwart and sabotage the DAP efforts to oppose Land Acquisition Act abuses and injustices throughout the country.
In my letter to Cheong Tai Onn, I had asked him a second question, why his letter to me dated 14th December 1994 did not reach me until 26 days later, and why before I received the letter, the MCA National Publicity Bureau knew of its contents and could issue two press statements making a false claim to try to use it as ‘political ammunition’ against the DAP.
In this letter to me, Cheong Tai Onn sent me enclosures including a copy of a letter which he wrote to the Kelantan State Government in April 1994 admitting that the Tanah Putih, Gua Musang farmers do not have titles to their land and are illegally occupying state land for cultivation.
The DAP has always maintained that farmers who have illegally occupied state land for cultivation for decades are entitled to fair and just treatment by the state government whether in terms of proper notice to be able to harvest their crops or resettlement.
However, the question here is why the MCA national leadership, through the MCA National Publicity Bureau, has concocted a lie – which is believed even by newspaper editorial writers – that the Tanah Putih, Gua Musang land case is a Land Acquisition Act issue when it is a case of illegal cultivation on state land.
I invite the MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik, to maintain an elementary standard of honesty and decency in party publicity and propaganda and not to allow the ‘election fever’ to compromise one’s principles as to concoct blatant lies.
If Liong Sik is not prepared to discipline the MCA National Publicity Bureau for its lie about the Tanah Putih, Gua Musang land issue, or get the MCA Publicity Bureau to publicly apologise for its lie, then the MCA National Publicity Bureau is nothing but a MCA Lies Bureau, and the people are entitled to disregard all its allegations, claims and statements in future as equally baseless and dishonest.