Press Conference statement by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, at DAP Petaling Jaya headquarters on Wednesday, 16.3.1983 at 12.30pm.
An Open Letter to Tung / Chiau Chung officials, in particular Mr. Lim Fong Seng, who campaigned for Barisan Nasional against the DAP in the April 1982 general elections to declare their stand on Dr. Koh Tsu Koon’s role as chief executioner to kill the Chinese education motion in Parliament.
I am calling this press conference to issue an open letter to the Tung / Chiau Chung officials, in particular Mr. Lim Fong Seng, who had campaigned for Barisan Nasional against the DAP in the April 1982 general elections to declare their stand on Dr. Koh Tsu Koon’s role in Parliament last Monday as ‘chief executioner’ to kill the Chinese education motion on eternal preservation of Chinese primary schools.
My open letter to the Tung / Chiau Chung officials, and in particular Mr. Lim Fong Seng, who had campaigned for the Barisan Nasional against the DAP is as follows :
“ 16.3.1983
An Open Letter to Tung / Chiau Chung officials, and in particular Mr. Lim Fong Seng, who had campaigned for the Barisan Nasional against the DAP in the April 1982 general elections.
Dear Sirs,
In the April 1982 General Elections, you had campaigned for the Barisan Nasional against the DAP, causing in no small measure the DAP’s unprecedented electoral defeat in Peninsular Malaysia on April 22, 1982, and the UMNO’s great political breakthrough.
Although your main centre of campaigning were in Kepong and Tanjong, the campaign you started against the DAP were not confined to these two constituencies.
Be that as it may, you have succeeded in getting one of your two candidates, Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, elected into Parliament on the platform of Chinese education. You had also declared that during the general elections campaign that you would be monitoring and supervising the parliamentary performances of your candidates, namely Dr. Koh Tsu Koon of Tanjong and Ker Kim Tee of Kepong, and that if they fail to measure up to expectations to defend, advance and further the cause of Chinese education in parliament, they would be ‘whip-punished’!
I want, through this Open Letter to you, to let you know that in my 14 years in Parliament, I had never been so disgusted as on last Monday, 14th March 1983, to see a Member of Parliament who was elected on the platform of Chinese education becoming the Chief Executioner in the Barisan Nasional effort to kill the DAP motion on Chinese education to ensure that Clause 21(2) of the 1961 Education Act is repealed, to provide for all eternity the preservation of Chinese primary schools, the parity of financial treatment of Chinese primary schools with national primary schools, and the compulsory teaching of Chinese language in all/secondary and primary schools/national to Chinese students with a minimum of 15 students of Chinese descent.
Dr. Koh Tsu Koon was the hero of the Barisan MPs in Parliament last Monday, after his 42 minute speech on the Audit (Amendment) Bill from 4.42 p.m. to 5.26 p.m.
Dr. Koh Tsu Koon was congratulated after his speech by UMNO and Barisan Nasional MPs for his speech, not for what he said on the Audit (Amendment) Bill, but for his great contribution in dragging out parliamentary time to deny the motion on Chinese education and Chinese primary schools, to be moved by DAP MP for Sibu, Sdr. Ling Sie Ming, from being debated.
Dr. Koh Tsu Koon would be truer to his election pledges to Tung / Chiau Chung and the cause of Chinese education if he had spoken for 42 minutes on the Chinese education motion, instead of sabotaging the motion by speaking for 42 minutes on the Audit (Amendment) Bill with the deliberate intention to kill the Chinese education motion.
In fact, last Monday’s Parliament saw the concept of ‘three-in-one’ being put into practice, with the Gerakan (represented by Dr. Koh Tsu Koon), MCA (represented by Lim Lian Seng of Kinta) and SUPP (represented by Dr. George Chan of SUPP) uniting to kill the Chinese education motion.
I am writing this Open Letter to you because I believe you owe the people an explanation whether Dr. Koh Tsu Koon’s parliamentary performance, being the Chief Executioner of the Chinese education motion in Parliament last Monday and a ‘Parliamentary fugitive’ last December when he was asked to support a DAP motion to demand that Merdeka University should be allowed when Universiti Islam is being permitted although the latter also contravenes the Universities and University Colleges Act, is the parliamentary performance with your blessing and approval.
If Dr. Koh Tsu Koon’s parliamentary performance in December last year and last Monday represent the spirit and substance of the Tung / Chiau Chung’s mandate to him, then we have nothing more to say as to leave the matter to the judgement of the people.
On the other hand, if Dr. Koh Tsu Koon’s parliamentary performances violates the trust you have reposed in him, as being at variance with the cause of Chinese education, then it is time you ‘whip-punish’ him and admonish him to cease and desist from continuing to sabotage the DAP’s parliamentary efforts to advance, protect and further the cause of Chinese education in Parliament.
We in the DAP, despite being reduced to only nine MPs in Parliament, would not be deterred by Dr. Koh and other MPs who are trying their utmost to obstruct the DAP’s efforts on behalf of Chinese education in Parliament, but we want to know, and the people to know, where exactly Dr. Koh Tsu Koon stand, and who he represents, in his efforts to destroy the DAP’s work on behalf of Chinese education in Parliament.We also want to know where you, who had responsible for putting Dr. Koh Tsu Koon in Parliament, stand with regard to Dr. Koh’s parliamentary performances, especially in being the Chief Executioner of the DAP motion on Chinese education in Parliament on Monday.
Yours truly,
(Lim Kit Siang)