Speech by DAP Organising Secretary, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, at the second DAP Segamat Utara by-election public rally at Jementah, Segamat, on Friday, 27th September 1968 at 8 p.m.
Tonight, I wish to ask the Alliance candidate for Segamat Utara Parliamentary by-election, Inche Musa Hitam, ten questions.
If he has nothing to hide, I am sure Inche Hitam would answer these question and welcome an opportunity for the voters of Segamat Utara to have a clearer idea of his thinking and beliefs, and help them to decide whether he or the DAP Candidate, Mr. Lee Ah Meng, a veteran trade unionist who had devoted the last ten years to the service of his fellow workers, should represent them in Parliament.
The questions are:
1) Would Inche Musa Hitam advocate that all Malaysians born in this country should be referred to as ‘bumiputras’, and that the present division of Malaysians into ‘ bumiputas’ and ‘non-bumiputras’ on the ground of race should be abolished, because it has created racial misunderstanding and antagonism, and was one of the deep-seated causes of the Penang racial riots and disturbances last year.
2) Whether he would call for the abolition of all racially-based organisations, like the UMNO, the MCA the MIC, and the Malay Regiment, because these racial organisations can only undermine efforts to instill Malaysian consciousness and identity among the people, and are therefore obstacles to Malaysian nation-building.
3) Whether he would support multi-lingualism, where all languages have equal place in this country, and where Chinese, Tamil, and English, together with Malay, are permitted in the Parliament, State Assemblies, government correspondence and notices, television sub-titling, etc.
4) Whether he would call for a drastic review of the Alliance rural development policy, which has failed to uplift the livelihood of the Malay masses in the rural areas, but only create a small class of new Malay rich, the directors, the capitalists and the rentiers.
5) Whether he supports the Alliance extravagant and criminal waste of public funds, as in the building of unproductive and prestigious multi-million dollar projects like the Subang International Airport, the National Monument, the Angkasapuri, the Sungei Way Golf Course, the Parliament House, which has reduced Malaysia from a prosperous nation to a debtor nation.
6) Whether he would campaign for the elimination of corruption in public life, which has grown even more rampant since Merdeka, by supporting the call requiring all public office holders, including Cabinet Ministers, M.P.s, Mentri2 Besar, State Executive Councillors, State Legislative Assemblymen, to declare their wealth and income, and those of their next of kin, and prohibiting Ministers, Parliamentary and Political Secretaries, Mentri2 Besar, and State Executive Councillors from participating in business of any form.
7) Whether he would support the Merdeka University project, in view of the support the government is giving to MCA College, which is a minor version of Merdeka University.
8) Whether he agrees with the Alliance misuse of public funds for political party purposes, as when the government pledged $10 million for the MCA College to “win Chinese Votes” and give money to build temples to house MCA branches.
9) Whether he would call for the resignation of Inche V. Manickavasagam as Minister of Labour for his failure, during his tenure as Labour Minister, to protect workers from exploitation and victimisation, and in particular, for his utter failure to help the tens of thousands of workers estate workers who had been retrenched and are now starving and suffering, many of whom are in Segamat itself.
10) Whether he would denounce the mass distribution of PPMs and other awards and titles to UMNO, MCA and MIC party hacks who have no claim to public service, on the ground that this cheapens the state and national awards, and is a form of public bribery and corruption.
Audited on 2021-04-028.