Statement by DAP Organising Secretary and Parliamentary Candidate for Bandar Melaka, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, on 18th April 1969:
Lim Kit Siang condemns Mr. Koh Kim Leng for declaring that the Malaysian Chinese may lose their citizenship if they vote the opposition party
My attention has just been drawn to a speech by the Alliance Candidate for Bandar Melaka, Mr. Koh Kim Leng, at an Alliance public rally at Hereen Street on 14th April 1969.
Mr. Koh said that if the people vote for the opposition party, then the Chinese may lose their citizenship in Malaysia. Mr. Koh Kim Leng went on to warn the Chinese that they must realize who have controls and posses the guns and knives, implying that it is the Malays who have the military power in the country.
I condemn in the strongest possible terms such irresponsible statement by an irresponsible politician. It is a downright threat to Malaysian Chinese in Malacca that if they do not vote for him and his MCA colleagues elsewhere, the Chinese will lose their citizenship and may even be slaughtered by the Malays.
I have not come across a more inflammatory speech than this one by Mr. Koh Kim Leng, who is clearly prepared to cause racial tension just to secure his own election.
Mr. Koh Kim Leng is fully capable of advocating the removal of citizenship of Malaysian Chinese if he loses the election. We know that in 1960, he was one of the authors of the Abdul Rahman Talib Report, which became the Alliance master plan to destroy Chinese schools, language and culture. Now, Mr. Koh Kim Leng is suggesting that the Malaysian Chinese should be deprived of their citizenship if they don’t vote for him.
Mr. Koh Kim Leng has now thoroughly exposed himself as a man who is prepared to sell his soul, language and race for personal political ambition.
But I do not think that a single Malaysian Chinese will be intimidated by Mr. Koh Kim Leng’s threat, because they have enough of the Koh Kim Lengs, Tan Siew Sins, Khaw Kai Bohs in Malaysia, who are prepared to be slaves of others in return for name and privilege.
Dare Mr. Koh Kim Leng threaten the Malays that if they don’t vote for the Alliance, they will lose their citizenship? I challenge Mr. Koh Kim Leng to say this.
When Mr. Koh Kim Leng warned that the Chinese must know in whose hands hold the ‘guns and knives’, Mr. Koh was suggesting that the Malaysian Chinese must, like him, be prepared to remain slaves, second-class citizens, and allow their language and culture to be eliminated.
The DAP had always called for the dissolution of the Malay Regiment, and its integration into a larger multi-racial Malaysian Regiment. But the MCA, which claims to be the champion of Chinese in Malaysia, have always opposed it – because the UMNO will never permit it.
But I urge Mr. Koh Kim Leng to stop making communal speeches, and trying to resort to political blackmail. Mr. Koh Kim Leng may want all the Malaysian Chinese to lose their citizenship if he is not elected, but it is Mr. Koh Kim Leng who will be defeated in the general elections on May 10, because the Koh Kim Leng will bring only disgrace and shame, not only to the Malaysian Chinese community, but to the Malaysian nation.