Speech by DAP Secretary-General and Member of Parliament for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, at a tea-party at Salak South DAP Branch on Saturday, 27th Sept. 1975 at 3 p.m. to mark his two-day visit to the Sungei Besi Parliamentary constituency.
1. Member of the public invited to complain to the DAP Headquarters about DAP MPs and SAs.
My visit to Sungei Besi Parliamentary constituency today and tomorrow is the first of my series of tours of all DAP Parliamentary and State Assembly constituencies over the next several months.
The purpose of this series of visits are three-fold:
1. To learn at first hand about the standard of constituency performance of DAP MPs or State Assemblymen, and to receive complaints about such constituency services directly from the people if any, so that DAP MPs and SAs can provide better service to the people;
2. To meet branch officials, members and supporters in the area to exchange views about the political situation in the country and about party organization; and
3. To learn about the problems and issues confronting the people in the different areas.
As elected Members of Parliament and State Assemblymen, DAP MPs and SAs have triple responsibilities, namely to the electorate who voted him into office, to the party, and to the people at large, or to the country.
A good MP and State Assemblymen must be able to fulfil all the triple responsibilities.
The DAP Central Executive Committee is very concerned that DAP MPs and State Assemblymen should live up to their constituency responsibilities in helping the ordinary man and women.
The public are invited to direct any complaints they have against zny DAP MP or State Assemblyman concerning their performance of constituency duties to the DAP Headquarters at 77 Road 20/9 , Paramount Garden, Petaling Jaya. I can give an assurance that all such public complaints would be acted on, for we want to know about the weakness and faults of our DAP MPs and SAs, so that we can better improve the standard of constituency performance.
The Central Executive Committee has also decided to establish an inspectorate entrusted with the task of monitoring and keeping progress reports on the constituency service and performance odf DAP MPs and SAs. This inspectorate will make regular reports, which would be considered and acted on, if necessary, by the Central Executive Committee.
The members of this Inspectorate, are as follows;
1. Ibrahim bin Singgeh (CEC)
2. Lau Dak Kee (CEC)
3. K. Ramasen
4. Gooi Hock Seng (DAP Youth)
5. Loke Swee Chan (Wanita DAP)
6. Au Keng Wah (Wanita DAP)
7. Hassan Bakti
2. Call to Elections Commission to mount a full-scale publicity campaign if the voters revision exercise this year is not to be the biggest failure of all time.
Two weeks have gone by since the start of the Voters’ Registration Exercise this year, and there is only three weeks’ left.
Although the Elections Commission announced that it is using new methods of registering new voters, the response of the public in the static canters throughout the country is dasmil. In fact, after two weeks of registration, the centres have registered merely 10, 20 or 30 voters! each!
The basic problem is because the majority of the people do not know that there is voters’ revision exercise, and out of the few who know, the majority do not know where and when to go and register.
Unless the Elections Commission mount a publicity campaign in all four language to inform the public, the voters’ registration campaign this year may well be the biggest failure of all time.
The Elections Commission should have sent out assistant registering officers to conduct house-house registration. The fault in previous registration campaigns was not in house-to-house registration, but in the cancellation of voters from the electoral register even though the person concerned has not died or charged address.
So long as the power to cancel names from the electoral rolls are removed, the house-to0house registration method should be received.
Meanwhile, all Malaysians who are above 21 years of age, and who have not registered should take the trouble during this period ending Oct. 18 to register as a voter, so that they can cast their vote during elections to help determine the political, economic, educational, cultural future of Malaysia and their own children.
Those who have problems should contact DAP branches and officials for guidance.