(Penang, Saturday): It is most shocking that the MCA President and Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Ling Liong Sik justified the two concurrent 18-month jail sentences imposed on Lim Guan Eng. In fact, in declaring that the court had been "fair and equal to everyone", Liong Sik was virtually asserting that Guan Eng deserves to be jailed for 36 months.
Liong Sik was making a meaningless statement when he said that "the law is fair and equal to everyone" on the ground that it was made by Members of Parliament including the Opposition. I want to declare loud and clear that the DAP is not a party to the arsenal of draconian laws in the country, which makes a mockery of the constitutionally-entrenched provisions about fundamental liberties, whether freedom of speech, expression, press, assembly or information.
In implying that Guan Eng deserves to be jailed for 18 months, disqualified as MP and debarred from his profession as a certified accountant, Liong Sik is going against the tide of public opinion in Malaysia which is dismayed, shocked, grieved and outraged by the Federal Court decision on August 25 in confirming the 36-month jail sentence for Guan Eng under Sedition Act and Printing Presses and Publications Act offences.
It is clear that ordinary Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, gender or educational background, have a more developed sense of justice and morality than Cabinet Ministers like Liong Sik!
Liong Sik should publicly apologise, not only to Guan Eng, but also to the Malaysian people, for making such a shocking insinuation that Guan Eng deserves his jail sentence, disqualification as MP and debarred as a certified accountant, which completely cuts him off from the sentiments and thinking of the overwhelming numbers of ordinary Malaysians, who still know the difference between right and wrong, black and white!
If the MCA Ministers and MPs dare not speak up in Cabinet and Parliament agaisnt the injustice of the Lim Guan Eng case, nobody would regard them as dumb if they keep completely quiet on the issue.
(29/8/98)