(Bentong, Tuesday): Gerakan
President and Minister for Primary Industries, Datuk Seri Dr. Lim Keng Yaik had
been evading the Suqiu issue during the entire Ketari by-election campaign.
Keng
Yaik should stop evading accounting for Gerakan’s
role in deceiving the Chinese community on the Suqiu issue and the Gerakan role
in forcing the Suqiu Committee to issue the joint
statement with UMNO Youth to withdraw seven of the 83 Election Appeals - or his
silence on the Suqiu issue will be more deafening than all the noises and
clowning he could make in Ketari.
Keng
Yaik should explain why Gerakan had given full and unqualified support for the
87 Suqiu Election Appeals before the 1999 general election, but when the Suqiu
was condemned as “chauvinist, extremist, communist and fanatical like Al-Maunah”
by the Prime Minister after the general election, the Gerakan leadership
maintained a total silence.
Furthermore,
Keng Yaik should explain why the Gerakan had agreed with UMNO Youth in
pressurising the Suqiu Committee to issue a joint statement with UMNO Youth to
withdraw seven of the 83 election appeals.
Keng Yaik in particular should explain why Gerakan has belatedly joined hands with UMNO Youth to reject the following seven of the 83 election appeals:
any affirmative action initiated by the Government should benefit and protect the weaker groups of society, regardless of their religious, social and racial background.
Efforts be made to abolish the differences between the Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera communities in all fields;
fair and equitable distribution of agricultural land to farmers without racial distinction;
to abolish the race-based quota system for entry into universities;
fair treatment be accorded to all religious organisations in terms of development of religion. Government assistance should also be extended to all such organisations which include sufficient coverage from the official media; and
to
establish a loan scheme or financial assistance for needy students
regardless of race.
As
senior Cabinet Minister, Keng Yaik should have used his political seniority and
influence to convince UMNO Youth that it was being unreasonable as well as being
un-Malaysian in their manner of objecting to the Suqiu Election Appeals - but
instead, the Gerakan leadership joined hands with UMNO Youth to pressurise the
Suqiu Committee to withdraw seven of the 83 Election Appeals.
This must stand as a blot on the political record of Keng Yaik and the Gerakan leadership as the the Gerakan farce on the Suqiu issue illustrates two things:
that the Gerakan leadership is prepared to deceive the Chinese community claiming to support the Suqiu election appeals before the 1999 general elections when it has no such political principle or commitment; and
that
it is allowed UMNO Youth to dictate as to what should be the Gerakan stand
on the Suqiu election appeals.
(26/3/2002)