Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung,
Lim Kit Siang, at the Penang DAP State Convention held in Penang on Sunday, September 4, 1994 at
10 a.m.
One of the biggest issues in Penang in the next general elections is whether Penang State Government should continue the unnatural and unequal relationship where the real power is not in the hands of the Chief Minister.
The Penang State Convention today is the last one before the next general elections, whether it be held in October, January or April next year.
One of the biggest issues in Penang in the next general elections is whether Penang State Government should continue the unnatural and unequal relationship where the real power is not in the hands of the Chief Minister.
It has been said that there are three Chief Ministers in Penang – one Chief Minister ‘in name’ in the person of Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, while there is one Chief Minister ‘in fact’ in the state government in the person of Dr. Ibrahim Saad and another Chief Minister ‘in fact’ at the Penang Island Municipal Council level in the person of Tan Gim Hwa!
What is pathetic is the Gerakan attempt to exploit this unequal and unnatural relationship in the Penang State Government where the Chief Minister in name is not the Chief Minister in fact, by claiming that this was because UMNO has more State Assembly seats in the Penang State Assembly.
Who will believe that if Gerakan had another five State Assembly seats in Penang, making a total of 12 Gerakan Assemblymen, the present farce of Penang having three Chief Ministers would not have happened?
This is unthinkable, for Dr. Koh Tsu Koon as Chief Minister will continue to play a secondary role to the Penang Chief Minister, Dr. Ibrahim Saad at the state government level and to the MPPP President, Datuk Tan Gim Hwa at the Penang Island Municipal Council level.
In fact, the subsidiary and subservient role of Gerakan vis-a-vis UMNO has become so deep-rooted and entrenched in the Gerakan psyche that it has become part of Gerakan political culture.
This is why in yesterday’s press, the Gerakan announced that the Tan Sri Rahim Tamby Cik ‘controversy’ was an UMNO matter and would leave it to UMNO to resolve it.
I cannot think of a stand which is more ‘boneless and unprincipled’!
Rahim’s triple scandals.
Although the Rahim Tamby Cik scandal now centres on the allegation that he had an affair with a 15-year-old school¬girl, which is the subject of police investigations and is most likely be the main agenda of the UMNO Supreme Council meeting on September 8, Rahim’s scandalous conduct included two other seri¬ous matters, namely:
* his probity and integrity as he has not been able to respond to the ten reports lodged by DAPSY National Chairman and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Guan Eng, about his extraordinary and unusual wealth completely disproportionate to his known sources of income; and
* his high-handed treatment of the Pantai Kundor and Tanah Merah villages whose Malay ancestral land were being arbitrarily acquired by the State Government without fair and adequate compensation – by cutting their water, power, telephone, post¬al, bus and taxi services and sending in the Federal Reserve Unit with police dogs!
The Gerakan leadership has decided to be ‘ostriches with heads in the sand’ by claiming that Rahim’s problem is a UMNO problem – when this position is not only completely untena¬ble and most cowardly.
The Gerakan leadership cannot be faulted if they claim that whether Rahim should continue as UMNO Youth leader in the face of such triple scandals is a matter for UMNO to decide, but this does not apply in the case of Rahim’s position as Malacca Chief Minister.
It is precisely because Rahim is also Malacca Chief Minister that for the last two weeks that his scandals became the scandals or the Malaysian people and country. This is why Rahim should step down immediately as Malacca Chief Minister to spare the people and country further national and international ignominy for his personal scandals, whether involving a 15-year old schoolgirl, or his extraordinary and unusual wealth or his arbitrary treatment of the Pantai Kundor Malay villagers.
This is where Gerakan must dare to take a stand in the public and national interest and not abdicate from its responsi¬bility by claiming that it is an internal UMNO problem.
But then, one is asking too much to expect Gerakan to dare to take such a principled stand considering the ‘culture of subservience’ which has become part of the Gerakan political psyche.
Of course, the Gerakan is not alone in the Barisan Nasional in having such a ‘culture of subservience’.
The MCA factor in the allegation of Rahim scandal of affair with a 15-year-old schoolgirl.
I was quite intrigued by a press report in the Chinese press yesterday on Rahim Tamby Cik’s scandals and his political prospects.
This article reported that a report of over 40 pages had been submitted to the Prime Minister on Rahim’s moral scandals, which also identified his “social circles and the intimates around him”.
The report said it understood that the over 40-page report referred to “two Malay Assemblymen and one Chinese offi¬cial responsible for investments who are in the social circles of the Chief Minister who played the role of putting the thread into needle”.
Everybody in Malacca knows who is this ‘Chinese official responsible for investments’ who played the role of ‘putting the thread into the needle’’ and who is in fact the MCA factor in the allegation of the Rahim Tamby Cik scandal of having an affair with a 15-year-old schoolgirl.
This is why the MCA leadership has been keeping so quiet about the whole Rahim Tamby Cik scandal!
Mahathir should direct his Cabinet Ministers not to forget their current responsibilities by losing themselves in Vision 2020 in another 25 years’ time.
The five fires at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport at Subang in two years and two gold bar robberies in four months should be taken seriously by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed.
The trouble with the Cabinet Ministers is that they have all got lost in Vision 2020 expected in 25 years’ time, and forgotten their current responsibilities.
At the end of July, MCA Ministers including the MCA President, and Transport Minister, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik was directed by the Prime Minister to attend a three-day motivation course at Pulau langkawi officiated by Mahathir himself.
For the whole three-day period, Liong Sik and other participants were required to carry an egg on his person with the injunction not to break it, in order to heighten their sense of responsibility.
I do not know whether Liong Sik broke his egg in the three-day motivation course at Langkawi in July, but there is no doubt that he has been breaking many ‘eggs’ at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport as well as other transport sectors during his tenure as Transport Minister.
Mahathir must tell Liong Sik and his other Cabinet Ministers that Vision 2020 cannot be achieved if they are incapa¬ble of setting the highest standards of excellence, competence and professionalism in their respective Ministries.
Mahathir should seriously consider privatizing the post of Transport Minister to the highest bidder with
the primary condition that there should not be another Kuala Lumpur International Airport fire.
May be, Mahathir should order his Cabinet Ministers to stop talking about Vision 2020 for the next 20 weeks, so that they all concentrate in turning their Ministries into highly efficient and competent departments.
In view of the established incompetence of the Transport Minister, may be the Prime Minister should consider ‘priva¬tising’ the post of Transport Minister to the highest bidder with the primary condition that there should not be another fire at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport to damage Malaysia as an investment centre and tourist destination.