By parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Sian, in Penang on Tuesday, Sept.18, 1990:
Liong Sik is so frightened by DAP’s Tanjong II ‘exercise in futility’ that for the second time, he is ‘on the run’ looking for a ‘safe’ seat to contest in next general elections
MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik , said in Butterworth yesterday that the DAP’s Tanjung II project to capture the Penang Governmnet in the next general elections is an “exercise in futility”
Liong Sik is of course entitled to his views, just like his views that the 10,000 Cheras residents who demonstrated against the Cheras tolls did not deserved any sympathy, or that they were irresponsible law-breakers who represent only ‘one per cent’ of the people of Cheras.
Whether the DAP’s Tanjung II project in the next general elections is an ‘exercise in futility’ is for the people of Penang to decide. What is clear however is that Ling Liong Sik is mortally scared of DAP’s Tanjung II project.
In fact, Liong Sik had been so frightened of DAP’s ‘exercise in futility’ that in the 1986 general elections, he ran away from the Bagan parliamentary seat in Penang to the ‘safe’ seat of Labis in Johore, where he could depend on the Malay votes garnered by UMNO to win.
Although he is now in Labis, he has found that he could not excape the impact of the DAP’s Tanjong II project, and this is why Liong Sik is second time again ‘on the run’, touring the country shopping for a ‘safer’ constituency to contest in the next general elections.
I will not be far wrong to call Liong Sik a ‘political fugitive’. In a sense, Liong Sik has proved that there is no need for Lee Kim Sai to challenge him as MCA President, for he could do what Kim Sai had done.
Kim Sai was a ‘political fugitive’ when he ran away to Australia to escape Operation Lalang in October 1987. Now, Liong Sik has also established himself as a ‘political fugitive’ running from parliamentary constituency to parliamentary constituency for his personal safety.
Kim Sai wanted to make Long Sik into a ‘rat running across the street’, but Liong Sik also succeeded in making Kim Sai into another ‘rat running across the street’.
This is why I said last week hat of all the MCA Presidents, Liong Sik is the best gift the MCA could gave to the DAP.
Dare Liong Sik ask the Cabinet tomorrow to officials reject the three-point UMNO Youth policy stand on the 1990 Education Act?
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No wonder, up to now, there has been no response from Liong Sik to the UMNO Youth’s three-point policy stand on the 1990 Education Act announced by the UMNO Youth leader, Datuk Najib Tun Razak, last Saturday.
I want to ask Liong Sik whether he dare to ask the Cabinet tomorrow to officially reject the three point-UMNO Youth policy stand on the 1990 Education Act, namely that while Chinese and Tamil primary schools can continue to exist, more and more subjects should be taught in Bahasa Malaysia, that apart from Islam, other religious are not allowed to be taught in schools; that private schools should comply with the New Economis Policy goals on racial percentages and quotas with regard to teachers, students and staff.
It is pathetic that Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik dare not take up the proposal of the MCA Health Minister, Datuk Ng Cheng Kiat, that Liong Sik should replace him on the Cabinet Committee on the 1990 Education knows that Liong Sik is afraid to sit on the Cabinet Committee to face UMNO leaders like Anwar Ibrahim and Datuk Najib Tun Razak.
Lee Kim Sai had asked for proof to substantiate my statement that of all the MCA presidents, Liong Sik is the best for the DAP. This is another example. Over the coming weeks, I will cite more instances for Kin Sai.
Datuk Najid is a member of the Cabinet Committee on the 1990 Education Act. What is the use of having a Consultative Council on the 1990 Education Act to advise the Cabinet Committee when Datuk Najib is laying down policy positions on the draft Education Act.
What Datuk Najib has done is to tell all the members of the Consultative Council on the Education Act 1990 that their views and contributions are, in the final analysis, utterly irrelevant.
This episode has proved the DAP right in staying out of the Consultative Council on the Education Act 1990, for it is just an election gimmick to give the Barisan Nasional the excuse not to make public the contents of the Education Act 190 before the general elections.
The views given at the Consultative Council on the Education Act 1990, just like views given at the National Economic Consultative Council, will not be given serious attention, for the UMNO leaders have already made up their minds on these issues.