Speech by Dap Organising Secretary and Parliamentary Candidate for Bandar Melaka, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, at a DAP Public Rally at Bandar Hilir Padang on Monday, 5th May 1969:
Lim Kit Siang wants solemn pledge from Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Tan Siew Sin that after polling day, the government will not clamp down on the activities of the Merdeka University and its sponsors
I have received reports that Alliance and MCA quarters are contemplating taking action after polling day on May 10 to clamp down on the activities of the Merdeka University, and its sponsors, like Mr. Sim Moh Yu and Mr. Lu Ting Yu and others.
I know that Tun Tan Siew Sin and Mr. Khaw Kai Boh, for instance, have privately sworn to destroy the Merdeka University after polling day.
Both Tun Tan and Mr. Khaw have developed a pathological hatred for the Merdeka University, Chinese language, education and culture. But both of them are forced to contain and check their public hatred for the Merdeka University and its sponsors because of the May 10 polling day.
It is actively canvassed in Alliance and MCA quarters that after May 10, the Merdeka University should be destroyed and its sponsors, like Mr. Sim Moh Yu, Mr. Loot Ting Yu, and others dismissed as school principals and school-teachers.
If the Alliance and the MCA wins all urban seats, they will be tempted to be tough with the Merdeka University project and its sponsors. But if the Alliance and MCA loses it seats to the Opposition, particularly to the DAP, then the alliance and the MCA will not dare to be tough with the Merdeka University project, because they will then have to reckon with the people’s unity and strength.
In any event, I want a solemn assurance from the Tunku, the Deputy Prime Minister, Tun Razak, and from Tun Tan Siew Sin, that the government will not, after Polling Day, take a more destructive attitude towards the Merdeka University, and would not try to secure the termination of service of Merdeka University prime movers, like Mr. Sim Moh Yu, Mr. Loot Ting Yu, and others.
We also want a solemn pledge from the Prime Minister, who has up to now not said a single word, that the government would register the Merdeka University – and not break its solemn word. Actually, I see no reason why the Merdeka University cannot be registered before May 10.
We in the DAP also want to seek the solemn assurances from the Prime Minister and Alliance government on the following issues:
1. That after polling day, the government will not force the closure of all Chinese, Tamil and English schools and force them to become Malay schools, as is recommended by Mr. Koh Kim Leng in the Abdul Rahman Talib Education Report.
2. That after polling day, the government will not close down the Independent Chinese schools, on whatever grounds whatsoever.
3. That after polling day, the government will not re-issue a circular to all Chinese schools forbidding school canteens to sell pork, and forbidding school children to eat pork.
4. That after polling day, the government will not raise the present ceiling of $10,000 government tender reserved exclusively to bumiputras only to $50,000 and later $100,000, and even later to all categories of government tender.
5. That after polling day, the government will not Malay-ise all programmes over Television Malaysia, to allow only Malay programmes.