Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General And MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, at the Dap protest meeting against illegal Indonesian immigrant crimes held at Cheras 9m.s. on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 1985 at 8 p.m.
DAP calls on all Malaysian to take a firm stand against the rising wave of illegal Indonesian immigrant crimes in Malaysia by making every Barisan Nasional Minister, Deputy Minister, Mp and Assemblyman responsible for every such incident.
The cold-blooded murder of a video company officer, Gee See Kao, 25, in his Taman Murni house at 15km Jalan Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, on Friday, 29.11.1985 by illegal Indonesian immigrant who broke into his house to commit armed robbery is the lasted in a long list of illegal Indonesian immigrant crime in Malaysia.
The DAP wants to protest in the strongest terms possible at the long-standing indifference of the Barisan National Government, and its Ministers, Deputy Minister, Parliamentary Secretaries, MPs and Assemblymen, to the threat created by illegal Indonesian immigrants to the peace, law and order, life and property of Malaysians.
The DAP Mp for Kepong, Dr. Tan Seng Giaw, sought to adjourn the Dewan Rakyat yesterday to discuss Gee’s murder, and the rising wave of illegal Indonesian immigrants crimes, but Parliament was not bothered about the gravity or urgency of this problem, and Dr. Tan’s motion was rejected.
Not a single MCA or Gerakan Minister or MP had shown any concern for the cold-blooded murder of Gee, or the wounding of his father and brother by the illegal Indonesian immigrants armed robbers or the long list of other Malaysian victims of all the hands of the illegal Indonesian immigrant.
Malaysians have a right to demand that our country does not become the haven of crime by illegal Indonesian immigrants. In fact, the illegal Indonesian immigrants are establishing a distinct and separate pattern of crime as compared to Malaysian criminals. The illegal Indonesian immigrant would inevitably raid the refrigerator of the house of the victim, and helped themselves to the food and drinks before they started on their criminal act. And invariably, if they meet with resistance, they would be very cold blooded with no hesitation or compunction to kill whatsoever. To the illegal Indonesian immigrant, life is cheap, and to kill or to be killed is not a matter of grave import.
Malaysians have a right to know why in Malaysia, our lives have been reduced to such cheap terms trough the influx of illegal Indonesian immigrants and the rising wave of crime committed by them.
In some housing estates in the country, especially in Johore, the people’s confidence in the police have fallen so low that they have formed private vigilante squads to organize beats of their estate to protect their lives and property against the depredations of illegal Indonesian immigrant criminals. I know one of the case, where the nightly vigilante beats of the residents have become so tiring and onerous, that they have started thinking about polling their financial resources to engage night watch-guards for their housing estate as a substitute. This shows how little confidence the people are having in the police to perform their basic duty to protect life and property in Malaysia.
The time has come for Malaysians to unite and demand that firm and effective action is taken once and for all to stop the rising wave of crime by illegal Indonesian immigrants.
The best way is for the people to hold the Barisan Nasional fully to account, in particular the Barisan Nasional Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Parliamentary Secretaries, MPs, Assemblymen and Municipal/District Councillors responsible for their failure to check and resolve the problem of the illegal Indonesian immigrants.
Whenever there is a crime, whether murder, armed robbery, grievous hurt or rape of Malaysian by illegal Indonesian immigrants, the people in the affected area must immeidately demand to see the Barisan Nasional Minister, Deputy Minister, Parliamentary Secretary, MP or Assemblymen, or Municipal/ District Councillors in their constituency or State, and demand to know why they are still doing nothing to put an effective stop to the illegal Indonesian immigrants crimes. They can march to their houses to demand for such an explanation!
This is the only way to put sufficient pressure on the Barisan Nasional Government to make it take action to stop the illegal Indonesian immigrants. If the people continued to be unorganised, or unconcrened about the meace of illegal Indonesian immigrants until they become the victims, then the people would only have themselves to be blamed.
Malaysian throughout the country must demonstrate their concern about the rising wave of crimes by illegal Indonesian immigrants.
The DAP Central Executive Committee, at its meeting on Dec. 7, 1985, would discuss the overall problem of the illegal Indonesian immigrant crimes, and I would suggest for the adoption by CEC a nation-wide programme to demand firm government action to put a stop to the rising wave of illegal Indonesian immigrant crimes.
For a start, I would urge all Malaysians to report to the Dap leadership every crime committed by illegal Indonesian immigrants, so that the people could know magnitude of the problem. I know that the authorities are trying to down-play this problem by not mentioning that crimes are committed by illegal Indonesian immigrants, but this is clearly prejudicial to the interest of Malaysians and to their right to demand that Malaysian ceases to be a haven for illegal Indonesian immigrant crimes.