Month: January 1969

Mr. Chua Song Lim asked to give three reasons to justify his stand that Nanyang University of low academic standard

Speech by DAP Organising Secretary, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, at a DAP Public Rally at Kulai, Johore, on Friday, January 31, 1969 at 8p.m.

On the 18th January, the MCA National Vice President, Mr. Chua Song Lim, gave a policy speech in Muar on the MCA’s stand on the recognition of Nanyang and Formosan university degrees and qualifications.

Mr. Chua said the Alliance government was right in refusing to recognize Nanyang University degrees because of its low academic standard.

How does Mr. Chua know? Did he speak with knowledge, or was it merely from hearsay? Has he made a study and comparison of the standard of the Nanyang University with other universities, for instance, the University of Malaya or the University of Singapore?

Is Mr. Chua qualified and competent to make any such study and comparison? We know Mr. Chua is a very successful and prosperous rubber baron, who knows when to strike a business deal to pile up a fortune, and who grows richer and richer year by year. But that does not make him an authority qualified to condemn the Nanyang University as of low academic standard! Continue reading Mr. Chua Song Lim asked to give three reasons to justify his stand that Nanyang University of low academic standard

Spare hawkers from police and government harassment during Chinese New Year festive season

Speech by DAP Organising Secretary, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, at a DAP Public Rally at Loke Yew Flats, Bungsar, on Wednesday, January 29, 1969 at 9.45p.m.

An open appeal to Mr. Khaw Khai Boh to spare hawkers from police and government harassment during Chinese New Year festive season

The government and the police have tended to regard and treat hawkers as anti-social elements, on the level with thieves and burglars, to be harassed and bullied whenever the occasion arises.

This is a wrong attitude, which should be abandoned immediately. Hawkers, licensed or unlicensed, are trying to make out a living for themselves and their dependants from hawking.

If they do not or are not allowed to hawk, they and their families will starve and suffer, and their children will not be able to go to school, be in good health and have decent environment to grow up into useful citizens of Malaysia.

Just as poverty is basically a social problem, which it is the responsibility of the government to solve, similarly the hawker problem is a social problem, which the government must handle with humanity and compassion. Continue reading Spare hawkers from police and government harassment during Chinese New Year festive season

Call to Malaysianise the armed forces

Speech by DAP Organising Secretary, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, at a general meeting of members and supporters at the Sentul DAP Branch, Kuala Lumpur, on Wednesday, January 29, 1969 at 8 p.m.

In the last week, Mirages and Lightnings have dominated the newspaper headlines.

But Malaysia can have all the Mirages and Lightnings in the world, and yet not survive either an internal revolt or an external attack, if the people of Malaysia do not have the will, capacity and resolution to unite, defend and even die for this nation of ours.

Some time ago, the Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, supported by his Deputy and Defence Minister, Tun Abdul Razak, declared that the government would not resist invasion or aggression by a nation which is ten times the size of Malaysia – which includes china, India and Indonesia.

Without any will and resolution to defend and die for the nation, all the Mirages and Lightnings, and all the defence hardwares which the Alliance will buy will be useless, apart from their hollow prestige value.

Such a defence philosophy of submission is also unlikely to encourage other countries to enter into a regional collective defence pact for the defence and security of this region, including Malaysia. Continue reading Call to Malaysianise the armed forces

Tun Tan Siew Sin’s deception

Speech by DAP Organising Secretary Mr. Lim Kit Siang, at a DAP Public Rally at Yew Road, Pudu, on Sunday, January 26, 1969 at 8p.m. to mark the opening of the Pudu DAP Branch the same afternoon

On 9th January, the Finance Minister, Tun Tan Siew Sin presented a painless budget, and announced that all is well with the Malaysian economy, although unemployment have reached alarming proportions and the country is in debt by over $4,000 million.

Tun Tan was clearly presenting an election budget to deceive the people, in the hope of getting their votes during the coming general elections.

But a week after Tun Tan announced in Parliament that the Alliance government was holding down defence expenditure, the Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, began a shopping spree in the Western European capitals for jet-fighters, which will cost Malaysia to the tune of $60 million to $100 million.

This is no small sum of money. Where is it to come from? Surely the money won’t fall from the sky. Didn’t Tun Tan know that the Prime Minister was going to shop for expensive jet-fighters? Continue reading Tun Tan Siew Sin’s deception

The crusade for a Malaysian Malaysia

Speech by DAP Organising Secretary, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, at a DAP Public Rally at Dato Kramat, Penang, on Saturday, January 25, 1969 at 8p.m.

The coming general elections will be a serious test between the forces for a Malaysian Malaysia and the forces for a communal Malaysia.

We in the DAP believe that Malaysia does not belong to any one race, on language or one culture, but belongs to all the races, languages and cultures which have made Malaysia their home.

In other words, Malaysia is not a Malay country, Chinese country or Indian country, but a multi-racial, multi-lingual and multi-cultural nation.

One would have thought that this concept of a Malaysian nation will be accepted by all Malaysians. Unfortunately, this is not the case. History has provided endless examples of the long struggles and great sacrifices that countless peoples had made, and are still making, just to establish simple truths; whether it be the equality of men, the freedom of the mind, or that Malaysia belongs to all Malaysians and not to any one particular race. Continue reading The crusade for a Malaysian Malaysia

DAP calls for local council elections before general elections

Speech by DAP Organising Secretary, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, to members and supporters of the DAP at Puchong, 14m.s. on Wednesday, January 22, 1969 at 5p.m.

For four years, the Alliance government has frozen grassroots democracy by suspending local council elections. The reason is that the Alliance is afraid that the opposition will capture many of the town and local councils and demonstrate its ability to produce a dynamic, clean honest and effective administration.

The Alliance is afraid that if the opposition is allowed to do this, then the opposition will be securing a firm base for greater victories in the Parliamentary and State general elections.

In other words, the Alliance have put its party interest above national interests. The same considerations govern its amendment of the Malaysian Constitution to suspend by-election in Salak and in Penang, because it feared that the opposition will win.

We know that the Alliance government is seriously considering doing away with elected councils altogether, or having a mixed system of elected and nominated councilors, to ensure that the Alliance government can nominate its stooges and reward its puppets. Continue reading DAP calls for local council elections before general elections

Three proposals for building a united Malaysian nation

Speech by DAP Organising Secretary, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, at a DAP Public Rally in Kluang, on Sunday, 19th January 1969 at 8p.m.

One of the greatest divisive forces working against the building of a united Malaysian nation is the Alliance’s policy of bumiputraism-dividing Malaysians into ‘bumiputras’ and ‘non-bumiputras’, with connotations of first-class citizenship for the former and second-class citizenship for the latter.

Such a pernicious division not based on loyalty or birthplace but strictly on the question of race. Dr. Chen Man Hin was born in Seremban and D.R. Seenivasagam was born in Ipoh, but they are ‘non-bumiputras.’ But Syed Jaffar Albar was born in Celebes in Indonesia and Syed Hussein Al-Attas was born in Bogor in Indonesia, but they are bumiputras.

In schools already, students know that they are classified into ‘bumiputras’ and ‘non-bumiputras’, and they resent it because they know it denotes inequality, injustice and discrimination.

In other words, a whole new generation is growing up feeling aggrieved at being classified as ‘second class’ citizens, denied as ‘sons of the soil’, although they are born, bred and educated here, and are even prepared to die for the country. Continue reading Three proposals for building a united Malaysian nation

Basis for opposition co-operation in general elections

Speech by DAP Organising Secretary , Mr. Lim Kit Siang, at a DAP Public rally at Ayer Puteh Road, Reservoir Gardens, Ayer Itam, Penang, on Saturday, January 18, 1969 at 8p.m.

Two weeks ago, the DAP proposed that the DAP, the PPP and the Gerakan should get together to arrive at an electoral understanding to prevent electoral conflicts in the same State and Parliamentary constituency in the general elections.

Such an electoral understanding will prevent the split of opposition votes which can only benefit the Alliance. This was what happened in the recent Serdang by-election in Selangor, where the DAP was narrowly defeated by the Alliance.

If the Serdang State by-election had been a straight fight between the DAP and the Alliance, there is no doubt that the DAP would have won. However, the Gerakan, although it knew it did not have a ghost of chance of winning, for reasons best known to its own leaders, fielded a candidate. In the event, it lost its deposit and helped the Alliance to win the seat on a minority vote.

The DAP does not want the mistake of Serdang to be repeated in other constituencies in the general elections. This was the reason why the DAP proposed to the Gerakan two weeks ago that there should be talks for an electoral pact. Continue reading Basis for opposition co-operation in general elections

Call for Public Inquiry into the Scandalous service and standard of Kuala Lumpur General Hospital

Speech by DAP Organising Secretary, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, to the Sentul DAP Branch on Saturday, January 11, 1969 at 4.30p.m.
Call for Public Inquiry into the Scandalous service and standard of Kuala Lumpur General Hospital

Over the years and months, there have been mounting criticisms and complaints against the service and standard of the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital.

I have personally come across numerous complaints of patients who were ignored and neglected when they were hospitalized, leading to the deterioriation of their health and worsening of their illness. Many of them had to be re-hospitalised at the Assunta Hospital or University Teaching Hospital before they could recover their health.

The latest case concerned Mr. Chan Kok Sang, who was victim of a gang clash. He was admitted to the General Hospital on December 26 with grave injuries on both arms. As the KL General Hospital authorities did not seem to bother much about Mr. Chan’s grave injuries, Mr. Chan was transferred to the University Teaching Hospital staff commented that if there had been a further delay of another five hours, it would have been impossible to save Mr. Chan. In the event, both his arms had to be amputated.

The question is: What did the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital do in the four days between Dec. 26 – Dec. 30, which led to the worsening of Mr. Chan’s condition, even to endanger his life? Continue reading Call for Public Inquiry into the Scandalous service and standard of Kuala Lumpur General Hospital

MCA’s so-called ‘anti -communist’ expert, Mr.Wu Ling Yu

Speech by DAP Organising Secretary, Mr.Lim Kit Siang, at Serdang Bahru DAP Branch ceremony to welcome new members into the Party, held at Serdang Bahru DAP Branch on Thursday, January 9, 1969 at 8p.m.

During the Serdang by-election, I disclosed that the Alliance government, without consulting or informing the citizens of Malaysia, took Malaysia into the American-Formosan sponsored world Anti-Communist League (WACL) in September last year.

One of the objective of the world Anti-Communist League was to work for the over throw of the communist regime in china, and to actively support every anti-communist measure of Chiang Kai Shek in his 20-year futile dream to regain China from Mao Tse Tung.

I had condemned this irresponsible action of the Alliance government and called for Malaysia’s immediate withdrawal from the World Anti-Communist League, as it is not to Malaysia’s short-term or long –term interest to get involved in and support Chiang Kai Shek’s futile dream.

The Alliance could not justify its arbitrary action in taking Malaysia into the World Anti-Communist League. it refused to withdraw Malaysia out of the World Anti-Communist League. On the contrary, the MCA had already imported a so-called anti-communist expert, one Mr. Wu Ling Yu, to help the MCA train its members and master-mind the political orientation of MCA rank and file. Continue reading MCA’s so-called ‘anti -communist’ expert, Mr.Wu Ling Yu