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 joint statement with UMNO Youth to withdraw seven of the 83 Election Appeals


Media Statement
- after visiting Perting with the DAP Ketari by-election candidate 
by Lim Kit Siang

(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:

 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:

(26/3/2002)


*Lim Kit Siang - DAP National Chairman