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Gerakan will team up with UMNO to humiliate and compel Liong Sik to define the “indefinite suspension” of the MCA Penang duo as euphemism for “expulsion” at the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council meeting next TuesdayMedia Statement by Lim Kit Siang (Penang, Saturday): After the unjust, cowardly and new-fangled decision of the MCA Presidential Council last month to “indefinitely suspend” the party membership of the two Penang MCA State Assembly members, Tan Cheng Liang (Jawi) and Lim Boo Chang (Datuk Keramat) for abstaining in the vote on the motion by the DAP Assemblyman for Batu Lanchang, Law Heng Kiang in the recent Penang State Assembly to defer the RM1.02 billion Penang Outer Ring Road (PORR) project, I had said that the MCA President, Datuk Seri Dr. Ling Liong Sik and the MCA Presidential Council were heading for another public humiliation. This was because Gerakan would team up with UMNO to pressure MCA to define and define satisfactorily the meaning of "indefinite suspension" to ensure that it contains at least the following elements:
In other words, to make the MCA duo’s “indefinite suspension” as good as or no different from expulsion. This is clearly what Gerakan and UMN0 would seek to do at the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council meeting next Tuesday, teaming up to humiliate and compel Liong Sik to define the “indefinite suspension” of the MCA Penang duo as euphemism for “expulsion”.
Yesterday, Barisan Nasional secretary-general Tan Sri Mohamad Rahmat said that MCA and Gerakan should stop undermining each other as this would weaken Barisan Nasional and he hoped that there were no ulterior motives in the incident where two Penang MCA State Assembly members abstained from voting against the DAP motion on PORR.
Mohamad Rahmat’s claim that any Barisan Nasional component party can propose a resolution at the BN Supreme Council meeting on Tuesday to expel the Penang MCA duo for breach of BN discipline (Utusan Malaysia) is most astounding, going against the Barisan Nasional constitution as well as public statements which have been made by Liong Sik, although nobody expects the MCA President to now publicly challenge Mohamad Rahmat’s misinterpretation of the BN constitution.
What Mohamad Rahmat did not reveal was the ulterior motives of UMNO in taking a hardline against the MCA leadership on the Penang MCA duo, including among other things, its refusal to allow the PORR project to be challenged or questioned in any manner from inside the Barisan Nasional as Penang UMNO leaders are the chief beneficiaries of the PORR contracts – as a precedent for all future UMNO-dominated projects in the state.
Mohamad Rahmat also warned the BN component parties that the next general election was around the corner, asking them to be aware of “global political scenario in the next millennium which saw many ruling parties being rejected by the people”, the latest example being Kenya where the party which brought independence and ruled the country for more than 40 years was rejected by its own people. (Malaysiakini)
Mohamad Rahmat should not use the Kenya elections to further the power tussle inside the Barisan Nasional but instead ask the BN Supreme Council to ponder the real lessons for the repudiation of the 24-year presidency of the Kenya dictator, Daniel arap Moi by the Kenyan voters – corruption, human rights violation, undemocratic repression and economic misery of the people of Kenya.
One of the first things that the newly-elected Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki did on his victory was to announce a war against corruption and to pledge that all the new Ministers and leaders would publicly declare their assets to set an example of public honesty and integrity.
Mohamad Rahmat would be doing the BN and the country a greater service if he should propose at the BN Supreme Council next Tuesday an all-out war against corruption in Malaysia – starting with the public declaration of assets by all Cabinet Ministers. (4/1/2003) * Lim Kit Siang, DAP National Chairman |