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MCA Ministers and leaders, both A and B Teams, should both review the method of their power struggle to ensure that they do not undermine the rights of the Chinese community or threaten the interests and even lives of Malaysians


Media Conference Statement (2)
by Lim Kit Siang

(Penang,  Monday): MCA Ministers and leaders, both A and B Teams, should both review the method of their power struggle to ensure that they do not undermine the rights of the Chinese community or threaten the interests and even lives of Malaysians.

It is not for non-MCA members or MCA outsiders like me to interfere in the power struggle waged between the MCA A and B teams, but the Malaysian Chinese community and the entire Malaysian people have the right to demand that both MCA factions should not undermine their rights and interests, to the extent of literally threatening the lives of Malaysians, in their power struggle.

It is most distressing and deplorable that in the past two years, almost every issue had been turned into a proxy battle between the MCA A and B teams, judged solely on what political advantage or mileage each faction could extract from it while completely ignoring the intrinsic merits, rights and wrongs in each issue - and this applies to almost all issues, whether minor and trivial or major and fundamental with far-reaching consequences to the community, people and nation.

The most recent instance to illustrate this senseless and mindless power struggle between MCA A and B teams is the Kong Ming lantern issue, with thousands of Kong Ming lanterns throughout the country grounded on Chap Goh Meh following their immediate and total ban by the police as a hazard to public safety, especially to aircraft operations and unexpected incidents such as fires.

As the MCA President and Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Ling Liong Sik had been claiming credit for bringing in the Kong Ming lanterns into Malaysia from Yunnan about 10 years ago, and had publicly taken the position that the tradition of releasing Kong Ming lanterns into the air should be preserved "as it encourages people to be strategic thinkers", Kong Ming lanterns also immediately became a proxy battle between the MCA A and B teams to protect or attack Ling's political credibility and leadership.

This explained the stand of the MCA B leaders who distanced themselves from the Kong Ming lanterns while the MCA A Ministers and leaders advocated a review of the total ban to allow for its controlled and regulated release.

Ling said yesterday that he would raise in the Cabinet a review of the total police ban on Kong Ming lanterns to allow for its controlled and regulated release.

There is a case for allowing the release of Kong Ming lanterns if the legitimate concerns of public safety, whether to aircraft operations or causing fires, can be addressed - involving the location and timing of release, as well as the quality of manufacture of the lanterns on safety aspects. I saw in the Sin Chew today a Reuters photograph of the release of sky lanterns (as they are called in Taiwan) in Taipei during Chop Goh Mei, which fully took into account all the public safety considerations.

As Transport Minister, Ling is particularly guilty of gross Ministerial irresponsibility in not having the "strategic thinking" to anticipate for the past decade since bringing in the Kong Ming lanterns from Yunnan their public safety questions, especially to aircraft operations, until the imposition of sudden and total ban by the police on the eve of Chap Goh Meh!

It is most fortunate that the Transport Minister had not been responsible for a major aviation disaster because of his lack of "strategic thinking" in the past 10 years after introducing the Kong Ming lanterns.

Be that as it may, while there is a case for Ling to raise the issue of review of the ban on Kong Ming lanterns in Cabinet (which was reported only in Chinese press but not in the MCA-owned Star - another manifestation of the irresponsible MCA A and B power struggle), Ling should explain why he had not earlier raised in Cabinet even more urgent and fundamental issues both to the Chinese community and the Malaysian people, such as:

" The review of the Vision School concept;

" The restoration of the original Damansara Chinese primary school in Petaling Jaya as a community school for the locality;

" The recognition of the International Mother Language Day on Feb. 21;

" The review of the "929 Declaration" by the Prime Minister that Malaysia is an Islamic State, which is against the fundamental nation-building principle in the 1957 Merdeka Constitution, the "social contract" and the 1963 Malaysia Agreement that Malaysia is a democratic, secular and multi-religious nation with Islam as the official religion but Malaysia is not an Islamic state - whether ala-PAS or ala-UMNO; and

" The establishment, terms of reference, composition and modus operandi of the second Mahathir education review committee to ensure that the most comprehensive and highest-powered education review committee in the nation's history is not exclusively an UMNO review but one which involves all political parties, both ruling and opposition, all races, religions and all educational segments and strata of the civil society.





Both MCA A and B Ministers and leaders are doing the Chinese community and the Malaysian people a grave disservice in reducing all issues into a proxy fight between the two factions - whether on corruption (the mysterious role of Ling's nemesis Soh Chee Wen); the Penang Outer Ring Road project (PORR) and the "indefinite suspension" of the two Penang MCA Assembly duo, Tan Cheng Liang and Lim Boo Chang; press freedom (whether the MCA takeover of Nanyang Press or the publication of Oriental Daily); Ling's undated resignation letter as Transport Minister or the vying by the MCA A and B teams for the favours of the UMNO leadership.

But the most scandalous and most disastrous example of such senseless and destructive MCA Team A and B division must be the mishandling of the worst dengue epidemic in the nation's history, which has claimed some 100 lives last year, and caused at least 20 deaths in the month of January this year - which may only the tip of the iceberg of a long list of unnecessary and avoidable deaths from dengue.

While the MCA B team leader, Health Minister, Datuk Chua Jui Meng plays political and bureaucratic game of "tug-of-war" and "passing the buck" with his MCA A rival, Housing and Local Government Minister, Datuk Ong Ka Ting, claiming that the health ministry is not responsible for the dengue epidemic, more and more Malaysians, Malays, Chinese and Indians, have fallen victim to the killer dengue disease.

On Saturday, I visited Taman Nirwana, Ampang, Selangor with DAP MP for Bukit Bintang, Fong Kui Lun, DAP MP for Cheras, Tan Kok Wai and DAP National Publicity Secretary, Ronnie Liu and was shocked to find that there were five dengue deaths in the area in the past two months - and there could be many other deaths in the same locality which have not come to our knowledge.

We visited the families of three dengue fatalities but have not been able to visit the families of two other dengue deaths, a 35-year-old Malay teacher and a six-year-old Malay boy. The three dengue fatalities, whose families we met, were:
" Muzammir bin Mokhtar, 39, businessman, of No. 10, Jalan Nirwana 24, Taman Nirwana, Ampang, who died at Ampang Puteri Hospital, Ampang on 19th December 2002. He left behind a widow, who had been medically boarded out from her former position as a bank secretary because of chronic illness and four school-going children.
" Wan Muhammad Riaz bin Borhannuddin, 10, of 16, Jalan Nirwana 15, Taman Nirwana, Ampang, who died at Kampung Baru Medical Centre on 17th January 2003.
" Chai Nyak Lan, 45, housewife, of 12, Jalan Nirwana 15, Taman Nirwana, Ampang who died at Ampang Puteri Specialist Hospital on 25th January 2003.
How can the MCA A and B Team Ministers have the heart and be so irresponsible to continue to play their political game of factional fighting at all costs and "passing the buck" when the dengue epidemic is raging unchecked claiming more and more lives?
Let me give one instance to demonstrate the severity of the dengue epidemic, which Chua had tried to play down by denying that ther is any epidemic and that it was "under control".
Selangor has almost the same population as Singapore, more than 4.1 million. Last July, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned the countries in the region, including Malaysia and Singapore, to take preventive measures against a dengue epidemic which could be as bad as the worst recorded year for dengue epidemic in 1998.

After a rise in the incidence of dengue fever in Singapore in August and September, the Singapore government announced in November that its anti-dengue campaign had successfully brought the dengue outbreak under control. For the whole of last year, Singapore reported a total of 3,937 dengue cases and eight Dengue Haemorrhage Fever (DHF) cases.

Selangor in contrast had some 9,400 dengue cases last year or some 140 per cent higher incidence than Singapore. Furthermore, the number of dengue deaths in Selangor in the dengue epidemic will be in the order of more than 1,000 per cent higher when compared to Singapore!

But such unprecedented death toll from the dengue epidemic whether in Selangor and the country have not been able to force the MCA A and B Ministers to suspend their party feud to jointly focus on their public responsibilities to save lives. Sad to say, even the Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr. Mohd Khir Toyo seemed to be indifferent and unconcerned that Selangor has 140% higher incidence of dengue cases than Singapore last year (and more than 1,000 per cent higher incidence of dengue deaths ) although both have almost the same population of slightly over 4.1 million people.

From the bottom of my heart, I want to issue a call to the MCA Ministers and leaders, both A and B Teams, that they should both review the method of their power struggle to ensure that they do not undermine the rights of the Chinese community or threaten the interests and even lives of Malaysians.

(17/2/2003)


* Lim Kit Siang, DAP National Chairman