Speech by DAP Organising Secretary and Parliamentary Candidate for Bandar Melaka, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, at a DAP Public Rally at Bukit Rambai on April 18, 1969 at 10 p.m.:
The Alliance and the MCA used to accuse the DAP of being anti-Malay because they claim we dare not contest in predominantly Malay constituency.
But in this general elections, we are contesting in several predominantly Malay constituencies, one of which is Bukit Rambai State Constituency in Malacca. This thoroughly exposes the mischief and malice of Alliance and MCA accusations.
What shocks me is that Tun Tan Siew Sin, the MCA President, should condemn the DAP for Contesting in a predominantly Malay constituency. Tun Tan said the DAP should not have fielded a candidate.
If Tun Tan Siew Sin is right, then he himself should never have run away from Bandar Melaka Parliamentary constituency to Melaka Tengah Parliamentary constituency, and rely on UMNO’s Malay votes to get him elected. Tun Tan should fight in Bandar Melaka, the town of his birth, and let the voters of Bandar Melaka decide whether his own claim is true, that he is the leader of Malaysian Chinese.
But Tun Tan Siew Sin dares not to do this, because he knows very well that if he had contested in Bandar Melaka Parliamentary constituency, he would not be able to retain his deposit even.
When we do not contest in predominantly Malay areas, we are wrong. When we do , we are also wrong.
This clearly shows that the Alliance and MCA leaders are now victims of election hysteria, who are getting jittery because they know they have met a serious challenger to their continued power and misrule, in the form of the Democratic Action Party.
The MCA is now trying to scare Chinese voters by saying that if they vote for the DAP, there will be Sino-Malay conflict and clashes.
Who caused the racial bloodshed in Penang in November 1967? Who started the riots in Bukit Mertajam, Pangkor Island and last month in Pantai Remis? Was it the DAP? The DAP was nowhere near these places when racial riots took place. The responsibility for these clashes must rest squarely on Alliance shoulders.
The Alliance and MCA should stop its politics of fear and intimidation. It will not win votes this way. On the contrary it will lose more votes. Alliance leaders, like Mr. Koh Kim Leng, should stop threatening the Chinese voters with the loss of their citizenship if they do not vote for Alliance. They will only anger more and more Malaysians.
The DAP is not an anti-Malay party. If we are a Chinese chauvinist party, as Tun Tan Siew Sin and Tunku Abdul Rahman are saying, then we will be fighting for a Chinese Malaysia, where the Chinese are the first-class citizens of this land, and where the Chinese language is the National Language and sole official language.
But we are not fighting for such a Chinese Malaysia. We are fighting for a Malaysian Malaysia. We do not want the Malay race, language and culture do be suppressed; nor do we want other races, languages and cultures to be suppressed. We want every race, language and culture to have an equal place under the Malaysian sun.