Press Statement by DAP Secretary-General and Member of Parliament for Bandar Melaka, Mr. Lim Kit Siang on 21st September 1971.
Sabah State General Elections
The Sabah State Legislative Assembly has been dissolved, and fresh general state elections will be held within 90 days.
On 21st July this year, a group of Sabahans applied for registration of a new political party in Sabah, under the name of United Sabah Action Organisation (USAO).
Two months have passed, but the sponsors of the USAO have received no word or reply from the Registrar of Societies in Kuala Lumpur on their application.
The Registrar of Societies owes both the people of Sabah and Malaysia an explanation as to why after two months, he has not yet registered the USAO as a political party. What are the causes of the delay? Is it part of a scheme with Run Mustapha to delay registration of the USAO until after
Nomination Day for the Sabah State Elections, so that USAO will not be able to contest in the elections as a political party, and in this way deny the people of Sabah an alternative political party to choose from during elections?
Sabah has up to now, been run as a pocket kingdom of the Sabah Chief Minister, Tun Mustapha, who lords over the timber-rich state like a tin-pot dictator.
The people of Sabah have great cause to be disillusioned and opposed to Tun Mustapha’s party regime, and would definitely vote in courageous Sabahans who dare to stand up for a more just and equal Sabah, inside Malaysia.
If the Sabah state general elections are held without fair-play to opposition candidates, like the registration of the USAO, then the elections will be exposed in the eyes of the world as an empty farce.
I hope that it is not the intention for the Malaysian Federal Government to be a party to a election fraud in Sabah. I therefore call on the authorities concerned to immediately register the USAO, so that the USAO can prepare to field candidates for the forthcoming Sabah state general elections.