by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Thursday , 29th March 1990:
The 50,398 unitholders should make use of their influence in MCA to ask for emergency meetings of MCA Branches, Divisions, State Conferences as well as an EGM to remind the MCA national leadership of its promise at one time that MPHB would be worth $10 a share
The present MCA leadership, let by MCA President, Datuk Dr.Ling Liong Sik, has forgotten its roots and origins. It has forgotten that one important reason the Tan Koon Swan faction could defeat the Neo Yee Pan faction in the 22-months MCA power struggle was because of the loyal support of MCA members who had full confidence in the call of the Tan Koon Swan faction for democratic reform and selfless service by the MCA leaders.
These loyal members were also the ones who had fully supported the ‘economic self-rescue’ project started by the MCA leaders over a decade ago like the MPHB and the 50,398 KSM-MPHBIF unitholders had used their hard-earned life-savings to protect the MPHB from any possible take-over from the MCA leadership.
Having used the 50,398 unitholders and their hard-earned life-savings the MCA leadership is now going to abandon them, sacrificing their interests just fir one person.
If up to this stage, the MCA President Datuk Dr.Ling LIong Sik, and the MCA national leaders cannot understand that it is to the best interests of the 50,398 unitholders in terms of getting the highest possible financial returns that the 147.98 million MPHB shares should be sold en bloc at premium price, instead of being sold by retail individually on the open market, then Dr.Ling is not fit to be MCA President and Cabinet Minister.
I credit Liong Sik with more intelligence than that. This can only mean that he knows very well that if the MCA wants to look after the best interests of the 50,398 unitholders, then he should support my proposal and ensure that the KSM Receivers come out with a scheme which has as its mean feature the sale en bloc of the 19.7 per cent stake of the MPHB at premium price. But Liong Sik is not prepared to take this course.
There are of course people who oppose the ale of the 147.98 million shares en bloc to fetch premium price, and one of them would be T.K.Lim, the Chief Executive of Kamunting Corporation Bhd.
This is because after Kamunting’s acquisition of KSM’s 28.9 per cent stake in MPHB last year, T.K.Lim had carried out various cross-shareholdings and share-swappings between the Multi-Purpose Group of companies and Kamunting, and the Multi-Purpose Group of Companies collectively own from 60 to 65 per cent of Kamunting.
Any company which acquires 19.7 per cent stake of MPHB could threaten not only Kamunting’s control of Multi-Purpose, but even T.K.Lim’s control of Kamunting as well.
T.K.Lim would have good reason to oppose any move to sell the 19.7 per cent stake in MPHB held by the 50,398 unitholders en bloc, but there can be no good and honourable reason for the MCA national leaders to oppose such a bloc sale.
This is why I had pointedly asked Liong Sik at our meeting at the MCA Headquarters on Tuesday, which had to be called off because of the unruly and indisciplined behaviour of the MCA Rambos, why the MCA leadership was sacrificing the interests of 50,398 loyal members for the sake of one person? Liong Sik had no answer.
The 50,398 unitholders had been the loyal members of MCA< who had used their hard-earned life-savings to protect the MCA, KSM and MPHB, unlike certain MCA leaders who had made use of MCA to make money and to acquire positions, They are entitled to remind the MCA leadership of its responsibility to ensure that as unitholders, they have the right to expect the highest possible returns for their 10-year investments in the KSM-MPHBIF. In fact, Datuk Dr.Ling Liong Sik and the MCA leadership Central Committee should be reminded that MCA members who were B shareholders were at one time promised by a famouns London telephone call that MPHB would be worth $10 a share and that they should not sell their units. If the 147.98 million MPHB shares are sold en bloc, then it may fetch a premium price of over $2 a share. The responsibility of the MCA leadership is very clear. The 50,398 unitholders should collectively make use of their influence in the MCA and demand the convening of emergency meetings of Branch, Division and State Conferences, as well as an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) to remind the MCA national leadership of its responsibilities to the unitholders, and in particular, that the MCA national leadership should not sacrifice the rights and interests of 50,398 unitholders for the sake of one person.