DAP Secretary-General, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, today issued the following statement in reply to the speech by the Prime Minister, Tun Abdul Razak, at a Alliance public rally in Ulu Selangor yesterday:
Those Alliance lies in Ulu Selangor
Tun Abdul Razak, at a Ulu Selangor by-election rally yesterday, questioned the loyalty of DAP leaders.
He alleged that DAP leaders, when attending the recent Asia-Pacific Socialist Bureau conference in Singapore, had spread rumours that there would be chaos in Malaysia.
These are Alliance lies in Ulu Selangor.
Firstly, let me state clearly on behalf of my party, that our loyalty to Malaysia is second to none in this country. We are loyal to Malaysia as a country which has become the home of the different races, cultures, religions and languages; as the place where I, my children and my children’s children will be born, live and die.
The Alliance leaders had more than once accused the DAP of disloyalty, not because we had been disloyal to Malaysia, but because of their perverted concept of Malaysia loyalty.
Since Merdeka, the Alliance Party had become so drunk with power that they have come to equate loyalty to Alliance Party as loyalty to Malaysia; and that whoever is not loyal or subservient to the Umno and Alliance are disloyal to Malaysia.
We in the DAP, and the majority of the people of Malaysia, reject without equivocation this pernicious and perverted doctrine of Malaysian loyalty.
If loyalty to Malaysia must mean loyalty to the Alliance Party, then my colleagues and I in the DAP are disloyal, and the large majority of Malaysians are disloyal. So be it! But no amount of threat, or intimidation will cow us to accept this perverted, pernicious, narrow-minded and intolerant doctrine.
To same, rational Malaysians, loyalty to Malaysia cannot and must not mean loyalty to any ruling party, but love, dedication, patriotism for this land and people, the preparedness to defend and die for this multi-racial Malaysians nation.
It is not surprising that Alliance leaders, to entrench themselves in power, should spout this pernicious and perverted doctrine that loyalty to Malaysia must mean loyalty and subservience to the Alliance and Umno party. But for the Prime Minister of Malaysia, who should have a breadth and vision as to the future and destiny of Malaysia, to lend support to such a perverted doctrine is highly regrettable.
Unless such a perverted and pernicious doctrine is repudiated, I must warn that it will be the cause of considerable national disunity and discord in Malaysia.
The Prime Minister has made a serious charge that DAP leaders had been guilty of disloyalty at the recent Asia-Pacific Socialist Bureau Conference which we attended.
I challenge the Prime Minister not to confine himself to making charges, but to take action to prosecute DAP leaders for what they have said at the Asia-Pacific Socialist Bureau which had preached disloyalty to Malaysia.
Both the speeches of Dr. Chen Man Hin and I, who spoke at the Asia-Pacific Socialist Bureau Conference, are on public record and available for anyone interested in them.
Since the Prime Minister has said that our speeches in Singapore had been disloyal, I also challenge the Government to give our speeches full television, radio and press coverage to let the people make up their own minds.
In fact, in my speech, my only reference to Malaysia was as follows:
‘For us in the DAP in Malaysia, our commitment to the democratic process is deeply-rooted.
‘Malaysia is a multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural society. Any form of government, whether an army dictatorship or a communist regime, which uses coercion rather than consent, force rather than argument, will lead to the quick disintegration of the country.
‘Only a democratic political process has any chance of holding the diverse races, languages, cultures and religions together.’
I stand by every word of it.
The DAP will continue, undeterred by threats and intimidations, to perform our role as a constructive, courageous loyal Opposition, loyal not to the Alliance Party, but to people and land of Malaysia.
We shall never deflect from our convictions and ideals. We know that we have right and justice and the majority of thinking Malaysians on our side. We shall continue to mobilise the people to strive for a more just and equal, more democratic and genuine multi-racial Malaysia.