by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary – General, Member of Parliament for Petaling, Lim Kit Siang, on 6.8.1978:
DAP apologies to Sultan of Perak for unintended disrespect to him: Six DAP State Assemblymen to take oath of allegiance to Sultan of Perak
I am surprised by what happened in the Perak State Assembly two days ago, where at the swearing in of the new State Assemblymen, six DAP Assemblymen did not take the oath of allegiance to the Head of State because the Perak State Constitution provides that a non – Perak national need not take such an oath.
The six DAP state Assemblymen should have taken the oath of allegiance, although I am sure they did not intend to declare that they did not owe allegiance to the Sultan of Perak.
I wish to assure the Sultan of Perak that the DAP fully upholds the Malaysian and State Constitution, and that every DAP State Assemblyman in Perak owes allegiance to the Head of State of Perak.
I have summoned a meeting of all Perak DAP State Assemblymen in Ipoh tomorrow evening, and I would advise the six DAP Perak State Assemblymen to take the oath of allegiance to the Sultan of Perak. On behalf of the DAP, I wish to apologise to the Sultan of Perak for any unintended disrespect to him and his office.
Finally, probably the state authorities should look into amending the Perak State Constitution to prevent such unintended misunderstandings from taking place in future.