by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Thursday, Oct. 24, 1985:
DAP cables Sabah Chief Minister to express support for amendment to Sabah Constitution to prevent State Assemblymen cross-over
I have today sent a cable to the Sabah Chief Minister, Daruk Joseph Pairin Kitingan, expressing full support for the PBS State Government’s move on Monday in the Sabah State Assembly to amend the Sabah State constitution to prevent State Assemblymen from crossing over to other political parties.
My cable to the Sabah Chief Minister reads:
“YAB Datuk Joseph Pairin Kitingan,
Chief Minister,
Sabah.
On behalf of DAP, I express full support for the PBS Government’s move on Monday to amend the Sabah State Constitution in Sabah State Assembly to prevent State Assemblymen from crossing over to other parties.
Assemblymen elected on one party ticket would be betraying their public trust if they defect to another political party. This is an immoral and unprincipled act, which had been the cause of politics becoming a market-place where politicians could be bought or sold to the highest bidder.
An Assemblyman of principle and honour who wish to leave the party on whose ticket he was elected should resign his seat to seek a now mandate from the party.
Such a constitutional change would be a great step in the fight against moral corruption in politics in Malaysia, and it is my hope that the Federal Constitution, as well as other State Constitutions, would be amended to put a stop to such unseemly ‘buying and selling’ of elected representatives.
Lim Kit Siang
Parliamentary Opposition
Leader”
DAP calls on the Prime Minister to direct the Batu Pahat West District Council to stop categorising properties into ‘bumiputeras properties’ and ‘non-bumiputera properties’ for assessment
With the approach of 1990, the final year of the 20-year perspective plan of the New Economic Policy, when the people are hoping that there will be a reduction in the emphasis of bumiputera policy, it is most shocking that the opposite is in fact taking place.
Recently, the Batu Pahat West District Council announced new property assessment rates and regulations, which not only increase property taxes as high as 1,000 per cent, but virtually created two categories of properties, namely ‘bumiputera properties’ and ‘non-bumiputera’ properties. The ‘bumiputera properties’ would be allowed ‘discounts’ of between 25 to 50 per cent of the increased rates.
I call on the Prime Minister to direct the Batu Pahat West District Council to stop categorising properties into ‘bumiputera properties’ and ‘non-bumiputera properties’, for this is not only unconstitutional in violating Article 8 prohibiting racial discrimination, it would seriously aggravate racial polarisation in the country, causing a great setback to nation-building.