Speech by the DAP Serdang State By election candidate, Mr. Lim Kit Siang who is also DAP Organising Secretary, at the first DAP by-election rally at Salak South New Village on December 26, 1968 at 8 p.m
On Saturday, 28th December, 1968, the 24,000 voters of Serdang will decide who is to be their next Assemblyman.
The choice before them is a very simple one: whether they want the Alliance to succeed, or whether they want the DAP to win.
There is no third or fourth choices, because the Serdang by-election is a battle between the DAP and the Alliance.
A vote for the Gerakan, or a boycott vote, will be a vote in aid of the Alliance, in that it will reduce the DAP’s votes, and brighten the chances of the Alliance in the by-election.
The issues at stake are very clear-cut. An Alliance victory will mean that the people of Serdang endorse:
(1) The increasingly racial policies of the Alliance in the field of language, education, culture, and in the economic and social spheres;
(2) The treatment of non-Malay Malaysians as second-class citizens by dividing them into ‘bumiputeras’ and ‘non-bumiputeras’, and denying to ‘non-bumiputeras’ equal citizenship rights as in land ownership and multi-lingualism.
(3) The exploitation of workers and farmers by the feudal-compradore alliance, to ensure that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
(4) The corruption, political immorality, dishonesty and incompetence of the Alliance rule.
A DAP victory will be a triumph of the cause of multi-racialism, and the adoption of the DAP Serdang Twenty Points calling for socialist and cultural democracy.
It will be a categorical statement by the people that the Malaysia they want is not a Malay Malaysia, as implemented by the Alliance, but a Malaysian Malaysia.
A vote for the DAP it also a vote for Merdeka University, and a vote for Chinese, Tamil and English as official languages.
If the Alliance win in Serdang, then the extremists in the UMNO is likely to become even more extremist and ultra in their national policies.
The Serdang polling day on Saturday therefore is more than the filling of a State Assembly vacancy. It is to decide whether the causes of multi-racialism is to triymph over racialism, and whether December 28, 1968 marks the beginning of the end for the 13-years of Alliance racialism and misrule.
In the last four weeks of campaigning, from my house-to-house visits, I have found that the majority of the people support the DAP’s Malaysian Malaysia struggle.
Like the Gerakan, the Alliance is getting more and more desperate with the approach of polling day.
In fact, last night, at the Serdang bahru public rally, where the PPP leader, Mr.D.R.Seenivasagam spoke, the former defeated MCA candidate for Serdang, Mr. Chan Tak Hua, tried to sabotage the public rally when my colleague, Mr. Chan Kok Kit was speaking on the Merdeka University and Chinese education
Mr. Chan caused such an uproar that he had to be chased away by the police.
We regret that Mr. Chan and the MCA should stoop so low as to resort to such disruptive tactics at our public rally.
We know that at squatter areas, like Kampong Sentosa the Mentri Besar, Dato Harun Idris, and the M.P. for Damansara, Mr. Michael Chen, are going round telling them that if they don’t vote for the Alliance, their houses will be pulled down.
This is sheer political blackmail. But the people should not deceived. Firstly the vote is secret, and nobody, including the government, knows who votes for what.
Secondly, Mr. Michael Chen would be standing for reelection in 1969 general elections in Damansara, and he knows that there is nothing more likely to ensure his defeat if he goes around to pull down squatter houses in the area.
I know that the Alliance are buying votes, at the rate of $25 per vote. I advice the voters to pocket the money, but to vote for the party of their own choice – and nobody will be the wiser for it, as voting is secret. We are also aware of other likely underhand tactics, like the retaining of voters identity cards and voting by impersonation.
Audited on 2021-03-17