Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, at the DAP Alor Star Ceramah held in Tou Moo Kong, Alor Star on Friday, 27th July 1990 at 8 p.m.
The 1,681 MCA General Assembly delegates should spoil their votes tomorrow to protest against the unprincipled and unscrupulous leadership of both Liong Sik and Lee Kim Sai factions
The abortive 13-day Ling-Lee battle for the post of MCA President, and the events before and after it, have brought shame and disrepute to the Malaysian Chinese community which the MCA claims to represent.
When the Lee faction challenged the MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik, it declared it as a battle between ‘justice’ versus ‘self-
interest’.
The Lee faction had very successfully succeeded in presenting not only to the MCA delegates and the members, but also to the Malaysian Chinese as well as all Malaysians, that the MCA President is a person who is not very ‘clean’.
This is because Liong Sik has not been able to give any satisfactory or convincing answer to dispel the many doubts and queries raised about his integrity in many deals involving either the MCA, KSM, Multi-Purpose Holdings Bhd., or he himself.
But what is the difference between the Ling and Lee factions in the MCA?
If the Lee faction is convinced that Liong Sik is not ‘clean’, then how could it reach a ‘ceasefire’ political settlement with the Lim faction after the grand dinner at Shangrila Hotel under the auspices of certain Chinese tycoons?
How could ‘justice’ compromise with ‘self-interest’ or a faction who claims to stand for clean politics compromise with a political leader they are convinced is unclean?
There can be no compromise in such a situation, but only a sell-out, and this is why I say that the so-called Lim-Lee ceasefire political settlement is the most disgraceful and dishonourable political agreement in Malaysian political history, and everyone involved in it should be thoroughly ashamed of himself!
Now the Lee faction is regretting agreeing to this political accord. But what is the reason for their regret? Is it because they now realise that there could be no compromise between ‘justice’ and ‘self-interest’, or between right and wrong, or between public interest and personal interest?
Lee faction has ‘material’ to force Liong Sik to resign as MCA President after general elections
Not so. They regret because they feel trapped and cornered by the Lim-Lee accord, and that they would be wiped out in the MCA party elections tomorrow.
In fact, a top Lee Kim Sai faction leader, who did not identify himself, has told the Press that they have got ‘material’, which he described as a ‘time-bomb, which could blow Liong Sik to smithereens, but which they would bring out after the next general elections.
The reason he gave was that this is for the ‘larger situation’, to let MCA get through the next general elections. When this ‘time-bomb’ is let off, Liong Sik would be forced out as Minister and MCA President.
It would appear that the real reason why the Lee faction is holding back this ‘secret weapon’ which could end Liong Sik’s political career it that they have no confidence that even if they released this ‘time-tomb’ now, Kim Sai could benefit by winning the MCA Presidency. The Lee faction has calculated that in the present situation in the MCA, Kim Sai has no confidence of winning even if the Ling faction put up another candidate, say Datuk Lim Ah Lek, to fight Kim Sai for the post of MCA President.
This is why the Lee faction’s strategy is to ensure that Kim Sai is elected as MCA Deputy President, so that when they succeed in forcing out Liong Sik after exploding their ‘time bomb’, Kim Sai can automatically take over as MCA President.
The Lee faction is being very naive in their day-dreaming, for there is nothing to say that in such an eventually, the Ling faction-controlled MCA Central Committee cannot unseat Kim Sai and make Ah Lek the Acting MCA President instead!
However, what should concern the Malaysian public is not the plots and schemes of the MCA factions, but whether it is morally and politically right and honest for the Lee faction to use the important issue of political integrity as a pawn in the MCA power struggle, and utterly disregarding the public interest.
If the Lee faction has ‘material’ which could end the political life of Ling Liong Sik, then it is their duty to the people and country to bring it out now. There can be no compromise on such questions. Otherwise, there is simply no difference in the leadership of both the Ling and Lee factions in the MCA, as both are equally unprincipled and unscrupulous, sacrificing public and national interest to their personal and factional interest.
The present MCA General Assembly elections is one of the most shameful episodes in the history of MCA.
What the 1,681 MCA delegates to the General Assembly should do tomorrow is to spoil their votes or cast blank votes to register their own as well as the Chinese community’s strong and loud protest at such disgraceful political leadership demonstrated by both the Ling and Lee factions. After they had spoilt their votes or cast blank votes, they should declare at the MCA General Assembly that they are resigning from the MCA because of their utter disgust with the unprincipled and unscrupulous leadership of both Ling and Lee factions.