Speech by DAP Secretary-General and Member of Parliament for Bandar Melaka, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, when inaugurating the protem committee of the Simpang Pulai DAP Branch in Perak on Friday, 5th May 1972 at 7.30 p.m. The Simpang Pulai DAP Branch is the fourth branch to be set up in the Ipoh-Menglembu area since the coalition.
DAP – the only genuine people’s party in Perak
When Dato S.P. Seenivasagam was sworn in as the seventh member of the Perak State Executive Council on April 28, leaders of both the Perak Alliance and the PPP spoke of “a new chapter” in the history of the State.
The Mentri Besar, Dato Haji Kamaruddin Isa, said that the fact that the PPP had applied to the Alliance State Government for a coalition speaks for the PPP’s interest in the people.
Dato S.P. Seenivasagam expressed the hope that the people of Perak would remember that day for many years to come.
On the eve of his attending the first Exco meeting on 2nd May, Dato Seenivasagam said that among the major problems facing the coalition Government in Perak are question of land titles and the conditions of new villages.
With these promises of a bright new tomorrow for the state of Perak, it is natural that the Perak people, and the people of other States, were more than normally interested in the results of the first Coalition Exco meeting – to find out what new thinking, direction, energy, dynamism will be brought to bear on the intractable socio-economic problems of Perak.
I am sure that my sense of disappointment, of an anti-climax, was shared by the people of Perak and other states when I heard of the results of the first Coalition Exco meeting. True, Dato Seenivasagam has been appointed to two committees, but what committees? One to find a site for the Ipoh library and the other to look after cows in Ipoh.
It would appear that the height of political achievement of the PPP after 15 years is to look after a public library and be a guardian of cows in Ipoh.
The decisions of the first Coalition Exco illustrates more than words can say the impotence, and ineffectiveness of the PPP in the Perak State Coalition Government. The position of the PPP, with 10 Assemblymen in the Coalition Government, is even weaker than that of the MCA, which has only one solitary Assemblyman in Perak.
PPP leaders have strenuously denied that they have entered into the coalition for sake of office, but for the interest of the people. In this case, one would expect the PPP to spell out the benefits it could bring to the people of Perak from the coalition.
But there is no talk nor solutions to grave problems of landlessness, homelessness and unemployment, and acute poverty in the new villages, estates and kampongs. There is only talk of a Ipoh public library and the problem of cows in Ipoh.
It is clear to all that the Perak Coalition is not a coalition of equals. In fact, it is no coalition at all. It is an absorption of the PPP by the Alliance Party, but by more subtle and refined means.
The absorption of PPP is the Alliance’s latest success in its new political strategy to eliminate all opposition parties, either by absorption or suppression, and work towards a one-party state.
The DAP is now the only party which has the courage and dedication to stand up for the rights of the people, not only in Perak, but throughout the country.
The DAP leadership is conscious of our added responsibility, but we shall unwaveringly and unflinchingly adhere to our party policy to strive for a more just and equal, more democratic Malaysia. In other words, a democratic socialist Malaysian Malaysia.
Since the Coalition announcement, the DAP Perak has formed, together with Simpang Pulai DAP Branch, four new branches in the Ipoh-Menglembu area. Tomorrow, Sdr. Fan Yew Teng, DAP National Organising Secretary and Member of Parliament for Kampar, will be inaugurating the formation of a fifth branch at Bukit Merah new Village.
The DAP will press ahead in Perak to struggle for the realization of our objectives, and the objectives for which the people in Perak and in other states unambiguously gave their support and votes in 1969.