Homepage for Lim Kit Siang

Is Liong Sik prepared to meet Suqiu and the 2000 Chinese organisations to fully explain Mahathir’s parliamentary statement on Suqiu as it is most inexplicable and unacceptable to majority of Malaysians

Media statement
by Lim Kit Siang

(Petaling Jaya, Wednesday): MCA President Datuk Seri Dr. Ling Liong Sik said yesterday that he hoped everyone understood the Prime Minister’s explanation for rejecting Suqiu’s demands.

The fact is that the majority of Malaysians regardless of race or religion and in particular the Malaysian Chinese community find Mahathir’s parliamentary statement on Monday trying to justify his 43rd Merdeka Message which attacked Suqiu as equivalent to the "communists in the past" and to the extremist and fanatical Al-Ma’unah movement most perverse, inexplicable and unacceptable.

Is Liong Sik and the top MCA leadership prepared to meet Suqiu, the over 2,000 Chinese organisations which gave their endorsement, the Chinese community and the Malaysian people to explain why Mahathir’s stand is right and proper and in keeping with the Vision 2020 concept of "Bangsa Malaysia"?

Liong Sik should not expect Malaysians to forget that with Gerakan President, Datuk Seri Dr. Lim Keng Yaik and SUPP Deputy President, Datuk Law Hieng Ding, the three top Malaysian Chinese Cabinet Ministers publicly announced MCA, Gerakan and SUPP’s full endorsement of the 17-point Suqiu on August 17 last year, and after the Cabinet meeting of Sept. 22,1999 announced that the Suqiu had been "accepted in principle" by the Cabinet.

Mahathir had admitted in Parliament on Monday that the Cabinet’s acceptance "in principle" was an act of electoral fraud, as it was not sincere or genuine but made in order to win over the Chinese voters in the approaching general election to save the Barisan Nasional’s two-thirds parliamentary majority.

Liong Sik should provide answer to two questions:

Was he the one who proposed such an act of electoral fraud to the Cabinet on Sept. 22, 1999 to deceive the Chinese voters in the approaching general election by declaring that the Cabinet accepted Suqiu "in principle" when this was never the intention, and if not, who was the Malaysian Chinese Minister who proposed it - whether from MCA, Gerakan or SUPP.
When he appeared with Keng Yaik and Hieng Ding on August 17 last year to publicly declare the MCA, Gerakan and SUPP endorsement of Suqiu, was this an earlier act of electoral fraud in that it was a dishonest and insincere declaration with the similar objective purely to deceive the Malaysian Chinese voters in the general election.

Mahathir’s extraordinary parliamentary statement on Monday, not only distorting the noble intentions of Suqiu, but admitting that the Barisan Nasional had deliberately and cynically deceived the Malaysian Chinese to vote for it in the last general election by falsely claiming "acceptance in principle" has proven the Lunas voters right in rejecting the Barisan Nasional candidate in the Lunas by-election last month.

The lesson from Mahathir’s parliamentary statement on Suqiu is that henceforth, no Barisan Nasional election or by-election claim or promise could be trusted, whether it be on Vision Schools plan or any other issue of importance, unless they are made in an iron-clad form as embedded in laws.

When even the Cabinet can commit an electoral fraud just to win votes, how could any Cabinet Minister of the Barisan Nasional government be believed or trusted that his/her word is his/her bond?

(13/12/2000)

*Lim Kit Siang - DAP National Chairman