by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Monday, January 9, 1994:
DAP lawyers are on standby and ready to file legal action against Kelantan State Government once the MCA national leadership produces documentary proof that the Kelantan State Government had acquired 1,000 acres of Chinese smallholders at Tanah Putih, Gua Musang under the Land Acquisition Act without compensation
The MCA leadership should explain why it is at Tanah Putih, Gua Musang under the Land Acquisition Act without compensation.
Two days before the DAP convened the National Conference Against Land Acquisition Abuses and Injustices at the Federal Hotel in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, which was a great historic success attended bu over a thousand people from all over the country, the MCA National Publicity Bureau issued a statement and alleged that the 1,000 acres belonging to the 500 Chinese smallholders at Gua Musang had been acquired by the Kelantan State Government under the Land Acquisition Act without compensation and that the DAP was practising ‘double-standards’ in not championing their legal and constitutional rights.
I had given the MCA leadership 24 hours to produce documentary proof that the Kelantan State Government with the promise that I would take the necessary action to defend their legal and constitutional rights.
If it is true that the Kelantan State Government had acquired the land of the 500 Chinese smallholders without compensation, this is a clear violation of the Land Acquisition Act as well as the rights to property of the 500 Chinese smallholders under Article 13 of the Malaysian Constitution, and the DAP will have no hesitation in championing their cause and even to take up a legal challenge on their behalf to sue the Kelantan State Government.
DAP lawyers are on stand-by and ready to immediately institute legal proceedings against the Kelantan State Government once the MCA national leadership furnishes us with the necessary documentary evidence to show that the Kelantan State Government had acted illegally and unconstitutionally in acquiring 1,000 acres of 500 Chinese smallholders at Tanah Putih, Gua Musang under the Land Acquisition Act without compensation.
Unfortunately, this 24-hour deadline has come and gone, and the MCA national leadership has not been able to prove any documentary evidence that the Kelantan State Government had acquired 1,000 acres belonging to 500 Chinese smallholders at Tanah Putih, Gua Musang under the Land Acquisition Act without compensation.
Why is the MCA afraid of PAS and Parti Melayu Semangat 46 and dare not take legal action against the Kelantan State Government for acquiring 1,000 acres of 500 smallholders in Gua Musang under the Land Acquisition Act without compensation
I am extending this 24-hour deadline to 72 hours to allow the MCA national leadership to produce documentary evidence that the Kelantan State Government had acquired 1,000 acres belonging to 500 Chinese smallholders in Kelantan under the Land Acquisition Act without compensation, and if after the extension of this 24-hour deadline to 72 hours the MCA leadership is still unable to produce any documentary evidence, then the people will know whether MCA leaders can be trusted or not.
I do not know why the MCA, with four Cabinet Ministers and its national battery of Deputy Ministers, MPs, State Exco Members, State Assemblymen and lawyers in the country had not dared to sue the Kelantan State Government on behalf of the 500 Chinese smallholders in Gua Musang whose land had been acquired under the Land Acquisition Act without compensation.
Is the MCA leadership not only afraid of UMNO, but also of PAS and Parti Melayu Semangat 46 when it dared not take legal action against Kelantan State Government for illegally and unconstitutionally acquiring 1,000 acres of 500 Chinese smallholders in Gua Musang under the Land Acquisition Act without compensation?
In any event, the DAP is prepared to do what MCA is afraid to do, i.e. to sue the Kelantan State Government for acting illegally and unconstitutionally in violating the constitutional rights to property of the Kelantanese, and all that the DAP is waiting is for the necessary documentary proof from the MCA leadership.