Speech by DMP Secretary-General and Member of Parliament for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, at a DAP Public Rally at Bukit Bakri, Muar, on Sunday, 29th Sept, 1974 at 8p.m.
1. DAP calls on the Barisan Nasional Government to honour their election promise to abolish the toll charges at the Muar and Batu Pahat bridges
During the August general election campaign, the Barisan Nasional promised that if their candidates are elected, the government would abolish the toll charges at the Muar bridge.
I call on the Barisan Nasional government to honour its election pledge, and without any more delay, abolish the toll charges at the Muar and Batu Pahat bridges.
The government has more than recovered the costs of the construction of the Muar and Batu Pahat bridges from the tolls it has collected, and the government should not think merely in terms of milking the public by continuing to impose the tolls. The government should also think in terms of reducing the hardships of the public, and in particular, to encourage the establishment of industries over the other side of the Muar River.
In this connection, it is difficult to understand why tolls are still being impowed at the Slim River in Perak, when the costs for building that highway had been more than recovered.
All these toll impositions should be lifted, and the temporary employees at these toll gates of Slim River, Muar and Batu Pahat bridges absorbed into other government departments as permanent employees.
2. Call on the Mentri Besar of Johore, Datuk Osman Saat, to explain what the State government has done ettle the Tasek squatters
The homeless plight of the Tasek Utara squatters in Johore Bahru had captured the attention of the people of Malaysia throughout this month.
Following the joint telegram by the nine DAP Members of Parliament to the Prime Minister, Tun Razak, to intervene in this matter, and ensure that a socio-economic solution is preferred to deal with the root problems of homelessness and landlessness rather than police action which cannot solve the human problems involved, I am glad to read in the press yesterday that the Minister for Housing and New Villages, Mr.Michael Chen, has said in Penang that he would be in Johore Bahru tomorrow to study “effective measures” to provide houses for squatters, and that Tun Razak himself wanted the housing problem to be solved without delay.
What is urgently needed is “immediate” plans to house the squatters who have been thrown out of their houses at Tasek Utara, and I call on the Johore Bahru Mentri Besar, Datuk Osman Saat, to explain what the State Government has done to immediately resettle the Tasek Utara squatters.
I hope that after Mr.Michael Chen’s visit to Johore Bahru, a crash housing programme involving huge Federal and State expenditures, can be launched which will make Johore Bahru a livable place for the workers and the poor, and not as of now, where Johore Bahru is one of the black spots in spots in Malaysia in terms of decent housing for the low-income group.