Speech by DAP Secretary-General and Member of Parliament for Bandar Melaka, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, at the First Anniversary Dinner of the Bukit Bintang DAP Branch on Tuesday, 4th July 1972 at 10 p.m.
DAP draws up a blue-printed for a new series of political and organisational initiatives for the next 18 months
Many of you who had subscribed to this dinner before June 18 must have thought on that date, when the DAP Central Executive Committee took drastic action to purge the Party of destructive and disruptive elements, that you would lose your subscription and miss your dinner.
For on and after June 16, friends and foes alike had expected the DAP to split, disintegrate and disappear from the Malaysian political scene.
But within a week of June 18, the DAP has demonstrated that it has emerged intact, organisationally and politically, with the whole Party at all levels rallying solidly behind the Party leadership.
In fact, many people still do not believe that the DAP has not split, or is not going to split.
At the recent UMNO Assembly, both the Prime Minister, Tun Razak and the Deputy Prime Minister, Tun Ismail, spent considerable time to attack the DAP. Both Tun Razak and Tun Ismail are concerned and worried, not because the DAP is splitting and disintegrating, but because the DAP, despite the great test it was undergoing, has refused to disintegrate and die.
In actual fact, there is a new confidence and new spirit among the Party members, arising from the consciousness that the Party is embarking on a new chapter of political development with the removal of the destructive and disruptive elements in the Party.
The anniversary dinner of the Bukit Bintang DAP Branch tonight, with the tremendous response and support from the people, is proof of the verve, vigour and vitality of the DAP in post-June 18.
The DAP’s participation of the Rembau-Tampin Parliamentary by-election, our first effort to expand into the rural areas, is another proof of the basic strength and solidity of the DAP.
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If further proof is needed, this is provided by the meeting of all DAP Members of Parliament and State Assemblymen in Seremban two days ago, where all the elected representatives of the DAP gave unambiguous endorsement to the June 18 decision, and rededicated themselves to the battle for a more just and equal, more democratic Malaysia.
The DAP is now healthier, more wholesome after June 18, and we are now drawing up a blueprint for a new series of political and organisational initiatives for the next 18 months.
In the new political battle of the DAP, there is only room for the dedicated, courageous and stout-hearted.
We can categorise into three groups those MPs and State Assemblymen who have either been expelled or who have defected from the Party.
The first group are those whose private life and personal weakness provide vulnerable points for the ruling party to exploit and blackmail them into submission and defection from the Party.
The second group are those who suffer from the delusions of personal grandeur, of self-heroism, who are prepared to destroy the party discipline, morale and unity just to quench their delusion of self-heroism.
The third group are the betrayers and traitors of the movement, of the people’s trust, confidence and interest. In the long history of mankind, in any country or society, there has always been traitors who are prepared for personal interest to betray their people’s trust and the fate of future generations. For example, in the five-thousand year history of China, there had appeared the great traitors like Chin Kwai, who persecuted upright officials and who with the 10 false golden summons from the Emperor, caused the death of the great Chinese patriot Yeh Fei. There was Wu San Kwei who betrayed the people and the Ming dynasty, and in this century, Wan Chin Wei, who sold the people, country to the Japanese aggressors and militarists. Thus, there are also in Malaysia today the modern-version of the Chin Kwei, Wu San Kwei and Wan Chin Wei and these are the people like Richard Ho and Walter Loh, who are prepared to betray the people’s interest for their own personal gain and profit.
Despite these renegades, I have no doubt that the DAP can grow in strength and power, for the source of our power is the people’s yearning for a more just and equal Malaysia for themselves and their children and children’s children.
So long as we remember the last words of Wen Tian Xiang (人生自古谁无死，留取丹心照汗青) ，and conduct ourselves in its spirit and nobility, I am sure that the DAP can leave behind a glorious contribution to the building of a more just and equal Malaysia.