标签： MCA

The life story of Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik: Part 8

Navigating politics:  Then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (center), at the opening of  an MCA  annual general assembly  in Kuala Lumpur. Flanking him were ex MCA president Tan Sri Lee San Choon(left)  and  then MCA president Dr Ling.

The life story of Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik as told to journalist Foong Pek Yee shortly after his retirement from active politics in 2003.

Dr Ling was the fourth generation of the Ling family, with a history dated back to Sitiawan, Perak in then Malaya in 1903.

A medical doctor by training, he went on to become the longest serving Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) president and the longest serving Transport Minister (1986-2003) in Malaysian history.

By  Foong Pek Yee

Foongpekyee@gmail.com

Sept 18, 2026

It was  autumn at Central London’s Hyde Park.

I had taken six weeks of no pay leave to do some reflections on what to do next.

That was in 1987 – a year filled with unparalleled challenges.

“Some 100 people including several MCA leaders got detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

“The swoop on Oct 27, 1987 was dubbed Operations Lallang 1987.”

There was widespread anger among the Chinese community in response to a government directive to send non Chinese educated teachers to hold senior positions in Chinese schools.

“The move was set to change the character of the Chinese schools.

“The tension escalated to protests in Chinese schools .

“As the MCA president and a Cabinet Minister, my six weeks of no pay leave was also to register my protest and stand by the Chinese community while working  for a solution to the contentious issue.”

On my way home from London, I transit in Hong Kong to meet up with Robert Kuok- a very wise man and fatherly figure.

He had very good advice for me, saying, “Life is about going upstream, against the current, and you cannot stop or else you will go backwards. You are really going upstream.”

I learned the importance of patience and endurance in politics the hard way.

“The Chinese School issue was resolved and the MCA leaders detained under the Operations Lallang were released shortly before Christmas that year.”

I was put to test again and again in politics.

Earlier I was among the 14 MCA central committee members who got sacked in 1984 at the height of a party crisis.

I resigned as deputy finance minister after the sacking.

The then MCA acting president Neo Yee Pan rescinded the sacking in January 1985 and I was appointed the deputy education Minister two months later.

“I won the MCA deputy president’s post in the party elections in 1985 and got  appointed as  the  Transport Minister the next year.”

The then MCA president Tan Koon Swan who was involved with Singapore’s  Pan Electric Industries (Pan – El) scandal stepped down as party president in Sept 1986.

” As the  MCA deputy  president, I was automatically elevated to the MCA president’s post on Sept 3, 1986 as provided for under the party’s constitution.”

But there was no time to rejoice.

The country was in an economic recession then,  and MCA in 1989 was at brink of losing Wisma MCA in Kuala Lumpur to a bank.

“We had a life membership recruitment drive to help save our building which also  houses our party headquarters.”

Together with other measures we managed to save Wisma MCA.

In 1987, we also secured a ringgit-to-ringgit refund to some 500,000 depositors of the 24 cooperative societies under Koperasi Serbaguna Malaysia or KSM run by MCA leaders.

“We are grateful to every body  who stood by MCA during such trying times and helped us to recover.”

I love to tell people the stories of MCA’s 3Rs – Rescue, Repair and Rebuilt – between 1986 and 1990.

Photos: Credit to a publication titled A Tribute to…Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik from his colleagues and friends in the Alumni Association of the King Edward VII College of Medicine and the Faculties of Medicine of the University of Malaya and University of Singapore.

All rights reserved. No part of this  publication titled The life story of Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior permission from the journalist Foong Pek Yee.

The life story of Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik : Part 7.

Turning point:  Hee Leong (right) and Hee Keat looking at their father’s general election poster in 1974.

The life story of Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik as told to journalist Foong Pek Yee shortly after his retirement from active politics in 2003.

Dr Ling was the fourth generation of the Ling family, with a history dated back to Sitiawan, Perak in then Malaya in 1903.

A medical doctor by training, he went on to become the longest serving Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) president and the longest serving Transport Minister (1986-2003) in Malaysian history.

By Foong Pek Yee

foongpekyee@gmail.com

Sept 18, 2026.

My eldest son Hee Leong was born on May 12, 1969 – the eve of the May 13 racial riots, often referred to as 513.

“There was a curfew and I had to get a special permit to bring my wife and baby home.”

On the political front, the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) which is a component party of the ruling coalition called the Alliance ( officially renamed to Barisan National in 1974)  lost all the seats it contested in Penang in the just concluded 1969 general elections.

MCA  splinter party called Gerakan , then an opposition party, made a clean sweep in the state.

Thus the MCA top leaders saw an urgent need to recruit members to strengthen the party.

The then Butterworth MCA division chairman Lim Ean Cheng persuaded me to join the party.

I joined MCA in 1971.

The division chairman appointed me as state secretary and introduced me to Lee San Choon when he visited  Penang.

“Lim Ean Cheng also recommended me to San Choon to make me a central committee member (the MCA central committee is the party’s highest decision making body).”

I remember taking a flight to Kuala Lumpur to meet then MCA president Tun Tan Siew Sin.

“Three years later I contested and won the Mata Kuching parliamentary seat in the 1974 general election, and retained the seat in the next two  general elections.”

In 1976,  I was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government and Federal Territory Ministry.

By then,  I was a father of two and having my own clinic.

My wife had quit her nursing job to help me in the clinic and take care of our children, Hee Leong and Hee Keat.

Comfortable life: Dr Ling’s clinic in Butterworth.

The clinic was on the ground floor and we stayed upstairs.

While the status quo was comfortable for our family, I decided to go full time politics in 1976.

It was not an easy decision.

“The clinic meant a lot to me.

“I bought it for RM50,000 including the building.

“Mother sold her bungalow and loaned me Rm15,000 and I took a bank loan to pay the balance.”

The clinic belonged to a Canadian doctor who studied in Sheffield, England.

He married a Malaysian Chinese girl and the couple decided to sell the clinic and leave Malaysia.

The clinic was the panel doctor for Penang Port Commission workers and Penang Labour Board workers and business was very good.

“The two contracts alone would give me a minimum of RM1,000 income a month, and this was really big money then.

“And the thousands of workers and their family members were also my voters.”

Dr Sak Cheng Lum, who is a close friend of mine and two years my Junior in University of Singapore took over the clinic.

The year 1978 was a difficult year for our family.

We lost our mother to cancer.

“While I retained the Mata Kuching parliamentary seat in the 1978 general election,  my mother’s funeral was three days before polling day.”

Despite battling the disease for more than a year,  she managed to make  preparations for her funeral.

“Strong, honest and meticulous, mother was a very good Christian and had lived a simple and good life.”

Photos: Credit to  a publication titled A Tribute to…Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik from his colleagues and friends in the Alumni Association of the King  Edward VII College of Medicine and the Faculties of Medicine of the University of Malaya and University of Singapore.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication titled The life story of Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior permission from the journalist Foong Pek Yee.

 

Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik : A visionary leader who walks the talk

A life of service :  Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik with the media at his last press conference as the Transport Minister in his office in Kuala Lumpur in 2003.  The medical doctor-turned-politician passed away peacefully in Kuala Lumpur on April 4, 2026 at the age of 82.

China Press exclusive

Reporter: Ng Siew Chin

Kuala Lumpur.

April 6, 2026

Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik was a kind hearted man who, despite the notoriously cruel nature of politics, always  focussed on the “big picture”-  prioritizing the interests of the people and nation.

The former Malaysia Chinese Association  (MCA) president and Transport Minister for 17 years (1986- 2003)  never spoke publicly about those  who had betrayed his trust.

The  Star reporter Foong Pek Yee  who was primarily responsible for covering MCA and Chinese community issues observed that Dr Ling was an intelligent, smart and charismatic leader who was deeply loved by party members.

In an interview with China Press, she described MCA under Dr Ling’s leadership as vibrant and proactive in reaching out to the masses,  especially the Chinese community.

The focus was on benefitting the people through education, particularly those from lower socio economic background, providing them with opportunities for a brighter future.

She said that regardless of the occasion or situation, Dr Ling was always courteous and maintained his stature.

Foong recalled that Dr Ling maintained a harmonious relationship with the media.

He met the media twice a week apart from his other events for press coverage.  He could remember the reporters’ names.

The media would be at his ministry in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday for a  press conference after the weekly Cabinet meeting.

The then MCA  president also held weekly  presidential council meetings at MCA headquarters in Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur,  and the media would  be there to get updates on matters regarding the party and Chinese community.

Dr Ling was  known to have a phenomenal memory.

“When fielding questions from the media,  he was always concise and would provide progress reports on various ministerial projects. There were so many development projects then that the media almost always had news to write after every press conference.

“”Even when MCA faced crises or when incidents involving his ministry occurred – such as the Subang Airport fire in the early 1990s,  he remained calm and composed. There were even times when the media requested him to show some emotion,”  Foong recalled.

Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik was laid to rest at the Xiao En Memorial Park in Nilai, Negri Sembilan on April 8, 2026.