by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary – General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 1989:
The eight Selangor MCA Assemblymen should be sacked, and the people who should resign are Ling Liong Sik, Lee Kim Sai and other MCA Ministers who had claimed that the Selangor Islamic Administration Enactment controversy had been resolved
The second time that the eight Selangor MCA Assemblymen have threatened resignation has been aptly described by one newspaper headline today as “Eight Assemblymen produces new trick”, although this is not completely correct. For now, it is not the right MCA Selangor Assemblymen who are producing this new trick, it is the MCA itself which has come out with this new trick.
In actual fact, the fate of eight MCA Selangor Assemblymen is utterly irrelevant. These eight MCA Selangor Assemblymen, including the MCA Youth National leader, Datuk Yap Pian Hon, had committed a gross breach of political faith which led to the loss of rights of the community by giving full support to the Selangor Islamic Administration Enactment at there separate bodies, the Selangor State Executive Council, the Barisan Nasional pre – council meeting, and the Selangor State Assembly on July 19.
The Selangor Mentri Besar, Tan Sri Mohamed Taib, said yesterday that the two MCA Executive Councilors had given support to the Selangor Islamic Administration Enactment when it was discussed in detail at there meetings before the Selangor State Assembly on July 19. The people will also remember a statement by Yap Pin Hon that they were only acting on the party’s instructions when supporting the Selangor Islamic Administration Enactment.
In staging this new ‘trick’ of the threatened ‘conditional’ resignation of the eight MCA Selangor State Assemblymen, MCA is trying to distract public attention from the nub of the problem and focus on the eight MCA Selangor Assemblymen. I must reiterate that the fate of the eight MCA Selangor Assemblymen is utterly irrelevant. They should be sacked for their actions in giving full support to the Selangor Islamic Administration Enactment whether in the State Executive Council or the Selangor State or the Selangor State Assembly.
The issue of the Selangor Islamic Administration Enactment had gone beyond the level of the eight MCA Selangor Assemblymen. Immediately after the nation – wide furore over the support if the eight Selangor MCA Assemblymen for the Enactment, the MCA national leadership had taken over the issue – with the MCA Central committee meeting several times, the MCA President and other national leaders making numerous public statements, and even referring the eight MCA Selangor MCA assemblymen to the MCA Disciplinary Committee.
The question at issue is no more the eight MCA Selangor State Assemblymen, but why the top MCA national leaders, from the MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik, the MCA Deputy President, Lee Kim Sai, downwards, had deceived the people that the Selangor Islamic Administration Enactment controversy had been resolved, when this was not the case.
On 19th August, for instance ,Lee Kim Sai that as the Selangor Islamic Administration Enactment had been ‘resolved satisfactorily’, the MCA Selangor Disciplinary Committee which he headed would spare the eight MCA Selangor Assemblymen and would not take disciplinary action against them. And it was none other than the MCA President, Datuk Ling Liong Sik, who said the Enactment would be resolved in the ‘Barisan Nasional Spirit’.
At the time, the DAP repeatedly demanded from Ling Liong Sik and Lee Kim Sai to give details of the formula for resolving the Selangor Islamic Administration Enactment controversy that they and the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, had talked about, but none of them was prepared to give details.
Again, how could the MCA National President and the other MCA Ministers claim in the past three months the solution of this problem, when on Sept. 28, the Enactment was gazette into law? Now, it is clear that there had never been any such formula or solution to the Enactment issue.
The people want the national MCA leadership to answer and explain why it has deceived them in August that the Selangor Islamic Administration Enactment problem had been resolved, when this was not the case. Ling Liong Sik, Lee Kim Sai and other MCA Ministers and national leaders are now passing the buck back to the eight Selangor MCA Assemblymen, in order to distract public attention for their own political failures and breach of promises, and even permitting them to threaten collective resignations on Dec. 15 to grad publicity and gain public sympathy.
I call on the MCA to stop playing games with the fundamental and constitutional rights of the people. The resignation of the eight MCA Selangor Assemblymen is purposeless if the harm the MCA had done in making the Selangor Islamic Administration Enactment into law could not be undone.
Are the eight MCA Selangor Assemblymen going to recon test on the Barisan Nasional ticket in these eight constituencies in the eight by – elections? On what platform would they or the MCA be campaigning on? To give a new mandate to the Barisan Nasional under the leadership of the Selangor Mentri Besar?
The fundamental question before the country is the credibility and integrity of the National MCA leadership. If it could not even resolve so small a problem in one state, after one national MCA leader after another had claimed that it had been resolved in the ‘Barisan Nasinal Spirit’ with the intervention of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri DR. Mahathir Mohamed, what credibility, purpose or function is there left of the MCA National President and the entire MCA Central Committee?
Now, it is not the eight MCA Selangor Assemblymen who are in the dock – as they had already been convicted in the bar of public opinion and found guilty.
It is the national MCA leaders, like Ling Liong Sik, Lee Kim Sai and other MCA Ministers and leaders who are in the dock for failing the people, in the same way that the eight Sealngor MCA Assemblymen had failed the people on July 19. If anybody should send in ther resignations, it is not the eight MCA Ministers and top leaders, headed by Ling Liong Sik and Lee Kim Sai.