Category: Constitution

Cuckoo’s Land in Parliament

I congratulate the Finance Minister, Tengku Razaleigh, and the other Cabinet Ministers for their great parliamentary performance or non-performance during the winding up for the 1984 Budget debate in the last two weeks, for they have completely belittled the dignity and purpose of the Parliament.

During the Budget debate, I spoke for more than an hour on the $2,500 million Bumiputra Malaysia Finance loans scandal in Hong Kong, for the whole sordid saga highlighted not only the negligence and irresponsibility of BMF directors and officials as well as Bank Bumiputra Directors, I also highlighted the irresponsibility and negligence as well of the various regulatory and supervisory bodies over Bank Bumiputra and BMF, like the Bank Negara, the Ministry of Finance, the Prime Minister’s Department, PNB, the Registry of Companies, the internal and external auditors, and even the entire Cabinet. Continue reading Cuckoo’s Land in Parliament

BMF Scandal- ‘Let the chips fall where they should’

The Finance Minister’s 1984 Budget would probably go down in Malaysian history as the Budget which commanded the shortest span of public attention. It is not even a nine-day wonder, for after one’s day’s publicity, the Malaysian public returned to the greater preoccupation about the $2,500 million loans scandal of Bumiputra Malaysia Finance in Hong Kong, the biggest banking and financial scandal in the history of Malaysia since Merdeka.

I believe I am not the only one to be very disappointed by the failure of the Finance Minister. Tengku Razaleigh, to take the opportunity of the 1984 Budget presentation to make disclosures, either through his orang presentation or by way of an appendix to the Treasury report 1983/84, about the BMF scandal in Hong Kong in view of the colossal sum of public funds involved. Continue reading BMF Scandal- ‘Let the chips fall where they should’

DAP Proposal that Parliament forms a Constitution Committee to consider and make recommendations with regard to proposed Constitutional amendments before a full Parliamentary debate

Speech by parliamentary opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, at the Sri Jaya DAP Branch Anniversary Dinner at Sri Jaya, Pahang, on Friday, 26th August 1983 at 8 p.m.

DAP Proposal that Parliament forms a Constitution Committee to consider and make recommendations with regard to proposed Constitutional amendments before a full Parliamentary debate

The Malaysian Constitution is one of the most amended Constitutions in the world. Since Merdeka in 1957, the Malaysian Constitution has been amended on nearly thirty separate occasions, involving some 1,000 parts of the Constitution. This make an average of at least one Constitutipnal amendment a year in the 26-year history of Malaysian nationhood. Continue reading DAP Proposal that Parliament forms a Constitution Committee to consider and make recommendations with regard to proposed Constitutional amendments before a full Parliamentary debate

The Wayang Kulit debate

The 1983 Constitution (Amendment) Bill proposed various amendments including increase of parliamentary constituencies, to lay down the detailed process whereby a Member of Parliament convicted of a criminal offence would lose his qualifications to be a Member of the House, provisions with regard to the Deputy Chairman and Members of the various Service Commissions, and amendments proposed to Article 66 and 150.

I have been following the Parliamentary debate these two days on the Bill, as I wanted to know the views and stand of the Barisan MPs, in particular the UMNO MPs, and I find this debate most extraordinary. We seem to be staging a Wayang Kulit, where we see the shadows but not the substance, as nobody seems to be brave enough to deal with the real substance of the amendments. Continue reading The Wayang Kulit debate

The power of the Raub Declaration has achieved its first result: the withdrawal of the Bandaraya requirement that Bahasa Malaysia on signboards and advertisements must be at least double the size of Chinese and other letterings.

Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary – General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, at the Sungei Besi DAP Branch Anniversary Dinner held at Mak Yee Restaurant, Wisma Shaw, Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, 2nd July 1983 at 8 p.m.

The power of the Raub Declaration has achieved its first result: the withdrawal of the Bandaraya requirement that Bahasa Malaysia on signboards and advertisements must be at least double the size of Chinese and other letterings.

After the MCA’s April 1982 General Elections ‘breakthrough’ and ‘great victory’, Malaysian Chinese found that their constitutional rights and interests came under sustained attack on a whole variety of directions. The MCA, despite its great and unprecedented general elections victory at the expense of the DAP, was not only unable to regain the rights lost from 1957 to 1982, instead since April 1982, even more rights and interests of the Malaysian Chinese faced erosion. Continue reading The power of the Raub Declaration has achieved its first result: the withdrawal of the Bandaraya requirement that Bahasa Malaysia on signboards and advertisements must be at least double the size of Chinese and other letterings.

Call on MCA Central Executive Committee to declare its stand on Datuk Harun Idris’ proposal for Constitutional amendment that the country’s Prime Minister must always be a Muslim Malay.

Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and NP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, at the Pulau Sebang DAP Branch anniversary dinner held at Pulau Sebang, Malacca, on Saturday, 30.4.1983 at 8 pm.

Call on MCA Central Executive Committee to declare its stand on Datuk Harun Idris’ proposal for Constitutional amendment that the country’s Prime Minister must always be a Muslim Malay.

The MCA had claimed a great breakthrough for Chinese political rights as a result of its resounding 1982 general elections results. The people had expected the MCA to deliver the goods of such political breakthrough in terms of the restoration of the lost political, economic, educational, social and cultural rights over since Merdeka in 1977. However, instead of the restoration of the lost rights, the last 12 months have seen even more remaining rights being taken away. Continue reading Call on MCA Central Executive Committee to declare its stand on Datuk Harun Idris’ proposal for Constitutional amendment that the country’s Prime Minister must always be a Muslim Malay.

DAP calls for clarification on proposed amendment to termination benefits regulations

by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Friday, April 29, 1983:

DAP calls for clarification on proposed amendment to termination benefits regulations.

The Labour Minister, Datuk Mak Hon Kam, said at the inaugural meeting of the Electricity Industry Employers’ Association yesterday that the government was gazetting an amendment to Regulation 8 of the Employment (Termination and Lay-Off Benefits) Regulation to disallow workers to opt for payment of termination benefits following a change of ownership of their firm if the new owners offer them employment on terms and conditions no less favourable than existing ones. Continue reading DAP calls for clarification on proposed amendment to termination benefits regulations

National Language (Extension and Amendment) Bill enacted without consultations and consent of people of Sarawak and Sabah

Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary – General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, on the National Language amendment bill on Thursday, 17.3.1983

National Language (Extension and Amendment) Bill enacted without consultations and consent of people of Sarawak and Sabah undermines the process of national integration, especially between East and West Malaysia.

For the last two days, Barisan MPs, both from Peninsular Malaysia as well as Sarawak and Sabah, including phoney Independents from Sabah, had been concentrating their fire on the DAP MPs from Kuching, Sdr. Sim Kwang Yang, DAP MP from Sibu, Ling Sie Ming and DAP from Sandakan, Sdr. Fang Ket Wing, for opposing the national Language (Extension and Amendment) Bill. Continue reading National Language (Extension and Amendment) Bill enacted without consultations and consent of people of Sarawak and Sabah

Call on 2M Government to respect the Constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion, and to confine legislative proposal to deal with intra-religious problems in the Muslim community

Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, in the Dewan Rakyat on Thursday, 9th December 1982 on the Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code (Amendment) Bill 1982

Call on 2M Government to respect the Constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion, and to confine legislative proposal to deal with intra-religious problems in the Muslim community of kafir mengafir, two imam and praying separately in the same or different mosque to Muslims and not to extend extend them to non-Muslim religious without consultation and consent of non-Muslim religious groups and organizations.

At the 33rd UMNO General Assembly in September this year, the Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, said that the Government would formulate a law to ensure that Islam, its teachings and values are not abused or wrongly preached. He said that the law would serve to protect the ‘sanctity of Islam’ as the official religion and would provide for legal action to be taken against those who carried out their activities prejudicial to Islam and Muslim unity in the country. The Prime Minister also said that the new legislation would be severe in dealing with deviant Islamic teachings. Continue reading Call on 2M Government to respect the Constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion, and to confine legislative proposal to deal with intra-religious problems in the Muslim community

Cable to Datuk Musa Hitam to withdraw the Penal and Criminal Procedure Code (Amendment) Bill 1982

Press Statement by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Monday, 6.12.1982:

Cable to Datuk Musa Hitam to withdraw the Penal and Criminal Procedure Code (Amendment) Bill 1982 until next Parliament meeting to allow adequate time for non-Muslim religious groups like the Christians, Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs, to study and make representations.

I have today sent a cable to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs Datuk Musa Hitam, urging him to withdraw the Penal and Criminal Procedure Code (Amendment) Bill 1982 until next Parliament meeting in March next year to allow the non-Muslim religious groups in the country, namely the Christians, Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs adequate time to study and make representations on the bill which has far-reaching consequences on the constitutional right of freedom of religion in Malaysia. Continue reading Cable to Datuk Musa Hitam to withdraw the Penal and Criminal Procedure Code (Amendment) Bill 1982