Talk by DAP Organising Secretary, Mr Lim Kit Siang, to the Perak State Sub-Committee at Ipoh on Sunday, May 19 at 11 a.m.
There have been various attempts to predict or engineer the break – up of the electoral pact reached between the Democratic Action Party and the People’s Progressive Party.
The Perak Mentri Besar said he was confident that the DAP – PPP electoral pact would not last long.
This is the fond hope and wish of the Alliance and MCA politicians and leaders. They want opposition parties to fight one another, split opposition votes, and allow the Alliance and MCA candidates to win by default.
This is also why they reacted with glee and relief when the Gerakan was formed. They are hoping that this will be the insurance for their victory at the next polls.
There is one thing we can assure the Alliance and the people of Malaysia. It is this: the electoral pact between the DAP and PPP for the next general elections is here to stay.
Whether other opposition parties are prepared or not to join the PPP-DAP electoral pact, the DAP and the PPP will definitely co-operate and not compete with each other in the next elections.
The Alliance and the MCA must have been encouraged by past efforts at electoral understandings, which have proved unsuccessful.
This time, however, we intend to make the electoral understanding work. For us in the DAP leadership, our word is our bond. We will never break faith for petty self – interests.
We are confident that this applies to the PPP as well. This is why we could reach agreement in so cordial and friendly a fashion.
There is a lot of loose talk these few days that the Alliance will lose its majority in the next elections.
We in the DAP do not believe in leading the people up the garden path. We believe in telling them the truth.
Neither the DAP, nor any opposition party or combination of opposition parties, will be able to topple the Alliance from the Federal seat of power in the next elections.
It is quite clear that the Alliance will be returned to power again. What we in the DAP seek to do is not to form the next Federal government, but to firstly, slash the majority of the Alliance to make it more responsible and responsive to the needs and aspirations of the common man, and secondly establish a base for the future expansion and growth of the movement for a democratic socialist and Malaysian Malaysia.
In other words, people at the next polls must decide, not whether they want to topple the Alliance government, but whether they want to vote into Parliament a group of people who have the stamina, dedication, selflessness and organizational ability to year after year, build up a national political movement which can in five or ten years time, pose a serious challenge to Alliance rule in Malaysia.
It is so easy to tell the people that at the next elections, we may form the next government in Kuala Lumpur. The people may be misled for a while, but in less than a year, after the next elections results, people will lose faith in a party which make big boasts which are not backed up by deeds.
We will always be frank with the people. The objectives we have set ourselves must necessarily take at least five years, a decade or even more to achieve.
We therefore need people who are long distance runners, and not short – distance sprinters, who after fifty yards fall by the way side for short of breath.
We want to build up a national political movement, and not one, two or three prima donnas.
We want to be honest, sincere and incorrupt.
All this we in the DAP will do. With the people’s help, our cause must succeed.