The following is an exclusive excerpt from Chapter 38 of ‘Lim Kit Siang: Malaysian First, Volume One: None But the Bold’, a new biography by Kee Thuan Chye.

Inevitably, the DTCs [Deposit-taking cooperatives] scandal became a focal issue when the by-election for the Gopeng parliamentary seat came up after [MCA leader] Tan Koon Swan resigned as its MP in April 1987. He was then serving his prison sentence in Singapore.

The DAP attacked MCA ministers for not daring to speak up in the cabinet for the 522,000 depositors affected by the DTCs fiasco. They had even sided with their cabinet colleagues in opposing the call for the government to bail out the depositors fully by giving them a dollar-for-dollar refund.

Lim Kit Siang was insistent on this bailout. He said, “If the Barisan Nasional government can allocate RM2.5 billion to bail out Bank Bumiputera over the BMF scandal, it will be guilty of the most unfair and discriminatory practice if it is unable to come out with RM600 million to bail out the 24 cooperatives.”

This point was hammered home throughout the Gopeng campaign. And, given the dreadful situation the MCA was in because of the DTCs, the DAP could have easily romped to victory with a Chinese candidate...