Category: Parliamentary Speeches

Voices of the dead in Parliament

I move:

“That this House expresses regret that the full report of the Public Accounts committee of the Fifth Dewan Rakyat on the 1977 Federal Government Accounts was only tabled on 15th October 1985;

“Further Notes that the Public Accounts Committee of the Sixth Dewan Rakyat has not presented a single Report together with the minutes of the proceedings yet to the Dewan Rakyat.

“Resolves to accept the full report of the Public Accounts Committee of the Fifth Dewan Rakyat on the 1977 Federal Government Accounts; but

“Directs the Public Accounts Committee of the Sixth Dewan Rakyat to complete and table all its reports on the Federal Government Accounts from 1978 onwards to the present Dewan Rakyat, as otherwise the Public Accounts committee would have lost its purpose should its reports be ready for the Seventh Dewan Rakyat”

Continue reading Voices of the dead in Parliament

Karpal Singh’s Suspension from Parliament

The motion before the House, to cite the MP for Jelutong, Sdr Karpal Singh, with parliamentary contempt is most unprecedented, for it is not only most irregular, unlawful, but also breaches all canons of parliamentary practice and conventions, being nothing more than a tyranny of the majority over the minority.

On 5th November 1984, during a question on police standard of service and performance, when Sdr. Karpal Singh asked a supplementary question which has become the subject matter of this motion, the Speaker had disallowed the supplementary question, and the MP for Jelutong had accepted the ruling of the Speaker, and the matter should have rested there.
Continue reading Karpal Singh’s Suspension from Parliament

Challenge to Datuk Harris Salleh on the companies I had mentioned in my budget speech in Parliament

Press Statement by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary–General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Saturday, Oct. 27, 1984:

Challenge to Datuk Harris Salleh on the companies I had mentioned in my budget speech in Parliament

On Thursday, the Berjaya MP for Hilir Padas, Mohamed Yusuf Haji Yakob, denied the truth of what I said in Parliament during my budget speech about the companies involving Datuk Harris Salleh, Sabah Chief Minister. Continue reading Challenge to Datuk Harris Salleh on the companies I had mentioned in my budget speech in Parliament

Barisan Yes-Men in Parliament

I rise to proposed that the question, ‘That the Bill be now read a second time’ be amended by leaving out the word ‘now’ and add, at the end of the question, ‘six months after this day’.

Under Standing Order 53(4), I need to give at least one day’s notice in writing for this amendment, but I cannot do so as I only saw the Order Paper setting out the Order of Business of parliament last evening. I am sure that many MPs only got to see the Order Paper today.

It has therefore been impossible for any MP who wish to invoke Standing Order 53(4) to comply with it and this is why I have only this morning sent in my notice of my intention to invoke Standing Order 53(4). Continue reading Barisan Yes-Men in Parliament

Signboards and Advertisement

I am moving this $10 cut in the salary of the Minister for Housing and Local Government, Datuk Dr. Neo Yee Pan, to censure him for his failure to check and prevent the implementation of the ‘One Language, One Culture’ advertisement policy of the various Municipal and District Councils.

Only a few days ago, the Alor Star District council made it clear that it would not compromise on its advertisement regulations seriously affecting the usage of Chinese language on signboards and advertisements, and as a result, several Chinese businessmen had taken down their signboards and advertisements in protest. Continue reading Signboards and Advertisement

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’

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

DAP calls on the Cabinet to order an audit by the Auditor-General into the Bank Bumiputra, and in particular the hundreds of millions of dollars loans to the now-bankrupt Eda Investments Limited and tottering Carrian company groups in Hong Kong by the Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF) , a subsidiary of Bank Bumiputra

Speech by Parlimentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, in the Dewan Rakyat on Monday, 14.3.1983 on the Audit Amendment Bill 1983

DAP calls on the Cabinet to order an audit by the Auditor-General into the Bank Bumiputra, and in particular the hundreds of millions of dollars loans to the now-bankrupt Eda Investments Limited and tottering Carrian company groups in Hong Kong by the Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF) , a subsidiary of Bank Bumiputra.

The DAP supports the Audit Amendment Bill to improve on the control of expenditure of public funds, whether by Federal or State Governments, public corporations or bodies and companies where there is substantial public funds invested, whether as loan, grant or in terms of equity. Continue reading DAP calls on the Cabinet to order an audit by the Auditor-General into the Bank Bumiputra, and in particular the hundreds of millions of dollars loans to the now-bankrupt Eda Investments Limited and tottering Carrian company groups in Hong Kong by the Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF) , a subsidiary of Bank Bumiputra

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