Speech by DAP Serdang State by-election candidate, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, and DAP Organising Secretary, at the DAP by-election rally at Kampong Sentosa, Petaling, on Wednesday, 18th December, at 8 p.m.
Point Two of DAP’s Serdang by-election pledge, the Serdang Twenty Points, called for “Priority attention to rural health, social life and education to improve the livelihood of the farmers.”
Serdang Bahru new village is the second largest new village in Malaysia, but it does not have a health centre and clinic to look after its population of 20,000 people, without taking into account the people living in surrounding areas.
This is proof of the utter disregard and neglect of the Alliance government for the welfare of the people in new village.
The government prefers spending millions of dollars on building golf courses, which benefits only the already well-to-do, and in sending Alliance leaders and government officials round the world on pleasure trips, than in building health centres for new villages.
The Alliance has promised for years that a health centre and clinic would be built in Serdang Bahru new village. In this by-election, The Mentri Besar, Dato Harun, has repeated the same old promise.
The people of Serdang are tired of hearing promises which are never fulfilled, like the promise of land for the people of Serdang bahru new village. Even today, Mr. Michael Chen is unable to state clearly that the Alliance would be able to distribute land within a month after polling day of this by-election.
I ask Dato Harun therefore to give details of the health centre and clinic for Serdang bahru new village, how much it will cost, where it will be situated, when work on the project will begin and end, how many doctors, nurses and staff it will have, what facilities are available, will it have a maternity section, etc. If Dato Harun could not furnish these details, it only means that the Alliance government has not even thought about the project, and that Dato Harun raised it merely as another of the Alliance’s famous election promises, never to be fulfilled.
Point Eight of DAP’s Serdang Twenty Points called for “Creation of more job opportunities to solve the growing problem of unemployment, by setting up industries in Serdang to absorb the thousands of Serdang people who have either been thrown out of employment or could not find jobs.”
I am glad that after the release of the DAP’s Serdang Twenty Points, Dato Harun announced that the government intended to set up light industries in Serdang.
But again, the people of Serdang are wary and even skeptical about the intention. As in the case of the health centre, we want Dato Harun to give more details: which areas and what industries will be affected by the plan to industrialise Serdang, what concrete steps have been taken in this direction, how much money will be spent in this project, how many jobs will be created, etc.
If Dato Harun have plans for the health centre for Serdang Bahru new village, and to industrialise Serdang, then he should have no difficulty in furnishing the details I have asked for. I am sure the people of Serdang await the details with great interest, for it will help them to judge whether the Alliance government is really sincere in caring for the needs and interests of the people of Serdang or was again only making empty election promises.
Audited by: Joyce T. and Faiz M.