Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader and DAP Secretary-General Lim Kit Siang at the Joint Third Anniversary Dinner of the Bentong and Bilut Valley DAP Branches held at Tooi Yuen Restaurant, Jalan Ah Peng, Bentong, on Sunday, 25th Sept. 1977 at 8 p.m.
DAP determined to break the 100% monopoly of the Barisan Nasional in the Pahang State Assembly in the next general elections
The DAP is determined to break the 100 per cent Barisan Nasional monopoly in the Pahang State Assembly in the next general elections. The total control of the Pahang State Assembly seats by the Barisan Nasional is unhealthy and against the interests of the peasants, workers and fishermen in the State.
The Barisan Nasional State Assemblymen represent vested financial and economic interests, and as a result, in the Pahang State Assembly, the voice and sufferings of the ordinary rakyat cannot be heard.
What the Pahang State Assembly talks about are ways and means to allow the capitalists and landed interest and foreign capital even greater opportunities to exploit both the natural resources of the State, and the suffering rakyat.
Pahang is a state with considerable vast resources of land, bit the landless of all races in Pahang are ignored, while large tracts of land are given out to Barisan Nasional leaders and their relatives.
The State of Pahang is regarded as a ‘black’ or ‘problem’ state, especially from the security point of view, which is testified by the ubiquitous road-blocks and police checks all over the State.
Why is this so? I call on the Pahang State Government and the Central Government to give deep through to this problem, and to give concrete help to the people of Pahang in the kampongs, new villages or towns better opportunities to improve their living standards.
Undoubtedly, the Barisan Nasional have failed to look after the basic needs of the poor and low-income in Pahang for a roof over their head, a job with steady income, land for cultivation, and fulfilment of their basic human and social needs.
In fact, the gravity of the security problem in Pahang is a reflection of the gross failure of the Barisan Nasional government in Pahang in the last 20 years to deliver the goods promised by the Barisan Nasional politicians in the last four general elections.
There is in Pahang rampant corruption and wide-scale misgovernment and maladministration. But because of the absence of opposition members in the Pahang State Assembly, the Barisan Nasional leaders continued to disregard the interests of the people.
The DAP in Pahang in the next general elections intend to contest in a substantial way to give the people of Pahang a choice and opportunity to register their rejection of the two decades of Barisan Nasional incompetence, misgovernment and downright neglect of the people’s basic needs.