Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Petaling, Lim Kit Siang, when speaking to a meeting of Perak DAP MPs and State Assemblymen at Perak DAP premises on Thursday, 2nd April 1981 at 7 pm
Call to DAP MPs and State Assemblymen to be vigilant of Barisan traps and not to fall for material inducements which will put them in a politically compromising position forcing them to do things which betray the Party, the people and their own conscience
Events have become clear who are the forces behind the Gang of Four which prompted them in the last five months to carry out a systematic and relentless campaign to destroy the DAP. The DAP leadership has exposed the mixed ulterior motives of the Gang of Four, who act at the beheat of several different forces, seek to destroy the DAP, which poses the most serious threat to the Barisan Nasional in the 1980s.
Events have also proved how treacherous, insincere and dishonest the Gang of Four had been in these few months and weeks when they protested their love and loyalty to the DAP and to the cause of a Malaysian Malaysia, when in fact, they were trying their utmost to destroy the DAP.
The Barisan Nasional, having encouraged and sustained the Gang of Four in the last five months to wreak the maximum disruption and destruction in the DAP, now hopes to move in and to cause DAP MPs and State Assemblymen to defect or them, either through intimidation or inducements.
There are those in politics who behave as if they are cattle, to be auctioned to the highest bidder. And of course DAP MPs and State Assemblymen to defect to them, either through intimidation or inducements.
There are those in politics who behave as if they are cattle, to be auctioned to the highest bidder. And of course in the last few weeks, we saw the Barisan component party members vying with each other to bid for these political cattle.
DAP MPs and State Assemblymen are entrusted with a special political responsibility to be the standard bearer of the Party and the people. They are in politics, not for what they can get out of politics, or to be able to put themselves in a position to attract the highest bidding in a political auction, but to serve the people and country in terms of bringing the country closer to the day when a Malaysian Malaysia becomes a reality.
So far, the DAP has distinguished ourselves from other political parties where there is a competition for MPs or State Assembly positions not because of the opportunity to serve, to sacrifice, but to get a short-cut to self-advancement and riches.
I call on all DAP MPs and State Assemblymen to be particularly vigilant against the Barisan traps and wiles, and not to put themselves in a politically compromising position by falling for material temptations or inducements.
It is not impossible for DAP MPs or State Assemblymen to get approval for land or housing schemes, either involving themselves or their wives of immediate family members. But such approval in invariably involves a political price to pay – to betray the DAP at the bidding of the Barisan.
It is nothing for the Barisan Nasional to approve an application by a DAP MP or State Assemblymen, whether directly orthrough the use of his wife, which involves $2 million or $3 million worth of projects, so long as the DAP could be destroyed or crushed from within.
In fact, this is a much cheaper way than to face the DAP in the general elections, in the hope of defeating us.
The Barisan Nasional also hopes to distract the DAP from the important issues of the nation in the 80s, by creating internal divisions and crisis.
For instance, there is at present before Parliament a proposal to amend the Societies Act which would have so far-reaching consequences on the freedom of speech, expression and belief, that it constitutes a grave attack democratic rights of Malaysians.
Among the various provisions in the proposed amendment, there is one which stipulates that a person who has been conficted of any criminal offence and sentenced to a find of not less than $2,000 or of not less than a year’s jail, is disqualified from holding office. in a society. This effectively removes Datuk Harun Idris from any position in UMNO.
Another provision stipulates that a person is also disqualified from holding office in any society “if there is in force against him any order of detention, restriction, supervision, restricted residence,….”.
This would remove Sdr. Chian Heng Kai and Sdr. Chan Kok Kit, two DAP MPs durrently in Kamunting Detention Camp under the Internal Security Act, from their political official positions. It would also make it impossible for Kassim Ahmad, PSRM Chairman, from holding that office in the party.
The DAP calls on the Minister of Home Affairs to defer presentation of the Societies Act amendment bill until the next Parliamentary meeting in June, so that all the societies and organisations in the country could have the opportunity to study the amendment proposals in depth, and to make representations to the Government.
If the Government insists on forcing the amendments through Parliament next week, the DAP will oppose the amendment with all the force at our command in Parliament.
In the economic, educational, political, cultural field, many things are happening. There is for instance a proposal to introduce the 3Ms in the primary schools. At the recent 3Ms seminar at the University Kebangsaan, the seminar proposed that the 3Ms should be taught in Chinese and Tamil primary schools with Bahasa Malaysia as the “first language”.
Although in reply to my question in Parliament, the Deputy Education Minister, Datuk Najib Tun Razak, said that the 3 Ms would be taught in the various primary schools in their respective media of instruction, it is obvious that there is still considerable vagueness about the 3Ms which the public and all educational bodies must be vigilant about.
In the economic sphere, in keeping with the launching of the Fourth Malaysia Plan, there is an extremist attempt to interpret the New Economic Policy in very racialist terms, like the Bintulu Development Authority affairs and the UMBC case.
The DAP will not allow the Gang of Four and their political masters to distract us from our political tasks. As the DAP’s MPs and State Assemblymen’s Seminar in Penang on 18th and 19th April, the DAP will fully return to our central political role of mobilising Malaysians behind the movement of a Malaysian Malaysia to ensure that in our country, there is democracy, economic justice, cultural freedom, educational equality and human rights.