Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Petaling, Lim Kit Siang, at a welcome-home dinner given by DAP officials and members in Penang at DAP Penang premises on Sunday, 2nd August 1981 at 8 p.m.
Sdr. Chian Heng Kai to tour Sarawak and Chan Kok Kit to visit Sabah to spread the DAP’s message of a Malaysian Malaysia
Sdr. Chian Heng Kai and Sdr. Chan Kok Kit have emerged from 4 years and 9 months’ incarceration unscathed, unbowed and still fighting for the political ideals and objectives for which they were detained.
Both of them have been put to the test, and both passed with flying colours. They have redeemed the political arena by demonstrating that there are political workers who could not be subverted by money and pomp or broken by pressure and intimidation.
Recently, the Malaysian political arena had been disgraced by the spectacle of MPs, State Assemblymen and other-level political workers who are prepared to auction themselves to the highest bidder, with the going price $300,000 for an Assemblymen and $500,000 for a MP.
Sdr. Chian Heng Kai and Sdr. Chan Kok Kit’s spirit of self-sacrifice, commitment and constancy of purpose should put such opportunists and self-centred opportunists like Seow Hung Khim, Chin Nyuk Soo, Chan Teck Chan, Wong Hong Keat and Ooi Eam Kong, to shame, and contrast the type of political leaders the DAP want to nurture and develop.
Although Seow Hung Khim, Ching Nyuk Soo and Chan Teck Chan used Chinese education as an issue to cover-up their political opportunism, they are the very ones who have done the greatest disservice to the cause of Chinese education in the country. They betrayed not only the DAP which gave them the opportunity to be elected as MP and State Assemblymen, they betrayed Chian Heng Kai and Chan Kok Kit who were detained because of their fearless espousal of the cause of Chinese education.
How can Seow Hung Khim, Chin Nyuk Soo and Chan Teck Chan claim to cherish Chinese education, when they could openly and without a twitch of conscience stab Sdr. Chian Heng Kai and Chan Kok Kit in their backs by betraying the DAP, seeking to undermine and weaken Kok Kit and Heng Kai’s resolve while under detention about the futility of their sacrifice?
Heng Kai and Kok Kit have proved that despite their disappointments at seeing the Seow Hung Khims, Chin Nyuk Soos and the Chan Teck Chans betraying the party and them while in detention, they have not allowed the treacherous activities of these self-seeking opportunists to wear down their political resolves.
In the next general elections, the people in Malaysia must decide whether they want political leaders and elected representatives to be men like Chan Kok Kit and Chian Heng Kai, who are prepared to pay any price and bear any burden for their political beliefs, and the people’s interests, or like the Seow Hung Khims, Chin Nyuk Soos and Chan Teck Chans, who pare prepared to betray the Party, the people and political principles for selfish interests.
Chian Heng Kai and Chan Kok Kit should be shining examples to everyone in the DAP and country as the type of political workers we must nurture if we are to succeed in our political crusade.
Chian Heng Kai will tour Sarawak for a week beginning on Wednesday, and Sdr. Chan Kok Kit will tour Sabah also for a week later this month, not only to meet DAP leaders, members and supporters in Sarawak and Sabah, but also to spread the DAP’s message for a Malaysian Malaysia.
Suhaimi’s extremism must be condemned without reservation so as to check extremism rearing its ugly head
Suhaimi Kamaruddin, the UMNO Youth Leader and Deputy Education Minister, recently denied that he was an extremist when he called for the implementation of Clause21 (2) of the 1961 Education Act to convert Chinese and Tamil primary schools international primary schools, and the slowing down of the economic growth of te non-Malays. He said it was I who is an extremist.
I am not in the least surprised by Suahimi’s defence of his own position, and his accusation of me of being an extremist, when all that I did was to oppose Suhaimi’s extremism.
What probably surprises people are that Datuk Lee San Choon fully agrees and supports Suhaimi that it is I who is an extremist, and not Suhaimi.
It is up to the people to decide who is the one who is making extremist calls and demands year after year. The DAP will not permit Suhaimi, in order to rise up the ladder of political power, to encroach on the basic constitution rights of other Malaysians. Even if MCA and Gerakan are prepared to concede and submit, the DAP will not.
I regret that Datuk Lee San Choon, Dr. Lim Kent Yaik, Tan Sri Ong Kee Hui and Datuk Samy Vellu dared not respond to the DAP invitation that MCA, Gerakan, SUPP and MIC Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Parliamentary Secretaries and Members of Parliament should join with DAP MPs to condemn Suhaimi in Parliament for his extremist and chauvinist speeches and demands.
Instead of condemning Haji Suhaimi, these component parties in the Barisan are more interested in condemning the DAP for standing up agains Suhaimi extremism.
Call on Malaysians to read and understand the ideas and thinking advanced by Dr. Mahathir in ‘The Malay Dilemma’
I welcome the lifting of the ban on the Prime Minister’s book ‘The Malay Dilemma’ as it would be most ridiculous for the Prime Minister’s most important political work, which is chiefly responsible for making him Prime Minister today, to be continued to be canned in the country.
I call on all Malaysians to read and understand the ideas and thinking advanced by Dr. Mahathir Mohamed in the ‘Malay Dilemma’ for the simple reason that as Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir’s ideas and thinking are important to the people and country.
The publisher of the ‘Malay Dilemma’, in page V of the book, when explaining why the book was published, said:
“This book seeks to explain the causes for the 13 May 1969 riots in Kuala Lumpur, to explain why the Malays are economically backward, to explain why the Malays feel they must insist upon immigrants becoming real Malaysians speaking, in due course, nothing but Malay, as immigrants to Australia speak English, as immigrants to America speak nothing but the language of what the author calls ‘the definitive people’.
“Dr. Mahathir argues that the Malays are the rightful owners of Malaya, that immigrants are guests until properly absorbed. He makes the point that immigrant are not truly absorbed until they have abandoned the language and culture of their past.”
The DAP cannot agree with many of the things Dr. Mahathir advocated in ‘The Malay Dilemma’ as policies for Malaysian nation building, but believes that it is important that all Malaysia understand the Prime Minister’s ideas and thinking.