Speech by DAP Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, at the Kepong DAP Branch Annual General Meeting held at Kepong on Thursday, 8th July 1982 at 8 p.m.
Call on Selangor Mentri Besar, Datuk Haji Ahmad Razali, to disclose all the decisions taken by the Exco meeting on April 8 when it was a mere caretaker government to ensure that there are no other instances like the Taman Aman parkland scandal
The DAP welcome the swift action taken to undo the most immoral, improper and even illegal Selangor State Exco decision on April 8, when it was merely a caretaker government after State Assembly dissolution and nomination of candidates, to alienate one and a half acres of Taman Aman parkland for six ‘big shots’.
However, the explanation by the Selangor Mentri Besar, Datuk Ahmad Razali, on the Taman Aman parkland alienation raised as many questions as the decision of April 8 itself.
As the 2M government upholds the principle of public accountability of government actions to the people, the Selangor Mentri Besar had left many questions surrounding the alienation of the Taman Aman parkland unanswered, namely the circumstances whereby certain ‘big shots’ in the government could apply for choice pieces of land, and get approval in the most unusual short period of time, the actual purposes and intended use of the land concerned.
Furthermore, who were the State Exco Members who were present on April 8, and why none of them were aware of the impropriety, immorality and even illegality of such a decision. This, in fact, is the most frightening part of the whole episode, the inability of the political leaders in the State Exco to distinguish between what is right and wrong.
Although he Taman Aman parkland decision has been undone, and the parkland returned to community use, the lessons to be learnt from the Taman Aman parkland scandal must be fully absorbed by the government and political leaders. This could only be done if there is a fullest inquiry into the entire Taman Aman parkland scandal – for Datuk Ahmad Razalies’s statement on July 6 is nothing but an attempt to cover up the incident.
It is only through the thorough expose of the whys and wherefores of the Taman Aman parkland scandal, how such a decision could be taken, that future Taman Aman parkland scandals could be prevented.
It has always shocked Malaysians that many political leaders holding top government positions could not distinguish between what is morally right and wrong. For instances, it is most immoral and wrong for a caretaker government, after dissolution of the State Assembly, to take decisions involving the government and the people in new commitments, as in the Taman Aman parkland scandal, to loss of precious community land.
I call on the Selangor Mentri Besar to publicly disclose ht were all the other decisions taken by the Selangor State Exco on April 8, when it was a caretaker government as the State Assembly had been dissolved and nomination of candidates had already been held, to ensure that there are no other Taman Aman Parkland scandals in the April 8 State Exco cupboard.
As the 2M government believes in public accountability, the Selangor Mentri Besar must be prepared to live up to this injunction, and let the people decide whether the April 8 State Exco caretaker meeting had acted fully within the bounds of political propriety, or whether the State caretaker Exco had committed the people of Selangor to many unjustifiable follies like the Taman Aman parkland scandal.