Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, at a DAP Ceramah held at Ipoh at Tau Boo Kang Hall, Ipoh on Friday, 4.4.1986 at 8 pm
Sabah Polls date may also indicate general elections nomination on April 19 and polling for Peninsular Malaysia on May 3
The fixing of the Sabah state elections date by the Elections Commission on May 5 and 6 is an indicator that the national general elections could be held on May 3 for Peninsular Malaysia, with April 19 as the simultaneous nomination day throughout the country.
I do not think, however that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, has yet made up his final decision on the national general elections date, although his inclination is to have national general elections now. This is because there are two matters, namely the UMNO crisis following the 2M split and the Sabah situation, which he had to decide how to handle before the final decision is taken, which has to be made in a matter of days.
DAP to aim to win 12 Parliamentary seats in Perak in next general elections
Perak, after Penang, is the DAP’s second ‘front-line’ state, because we aim not only to regain lost seats in the 1982 general elections, but to win in areas we had not won before.
I look to Perak to produce the most number of DAP Members of Parliament in the next general elections. Although the DAP has not decided on the number of Parliamentary and State Assembly seats in Perak we will be contesting in the next general elections, the DAP should aim to win 12 of the 23 Parliamentary seats in Perak in the next polls.
These 12 Parliamentary seats in Perak the DAP should work to win are:
Ipoh
Pasir Pinji
Batuk Gajah
Kampar
Beruas
Taiping
Teluk Intan
Sungei Siput
Lumut
Tapah
Tamjong Malim
Gopeng
This is the challenge of the Perak DAP and the people of Perak to send a strong team of at least 12 DAP Members of Parliament into the Dewan Rakyat, which will provide a strong basis for the nation-wide denial of the two-third majority to the Barisan Nasional government. With its two-third majority, power has gone into the head of the government, and as its whims and fancies, amend the Constitution and enact laws which further erode basic rights and liberties of Malaysians.
It is not going to be an easy task for the DAP to win at least 12 Parliamentary seats, for we fact not only the Barisan Nasional, but also other enemies – some who are ‘puppets’ of Barisan Nasional parties, and others who have a special axe to grid to want to destroy the DAP.
The Barisan Nasional component parties will either sponsor so-called Independent champions of the people, who go round urging the people to ‘Vote for Person and not for Party’, to try to siphon voter support back to Barisan Nasional candidates – or they may even sponsor Independent candidates to split the DAP’s votes and to five the Barisan Nasional a better chance of winning.
The movement of ‘Vote for Person and not for Party’ is a Barisan Nasional front organisation, fot it wants to confuse the people about the issues at stake in the coming general elections, reducing the future of Malaysians to a question of personalities when it is a question of political principles.
On the basis of ‘Votes for Person and not for Party’, the Chinese traitor, Wang Ching-Wei, should be voted and supported wherever he should contest, for he is undoubtedly a ‘talent’ according to the criteria of those who advocate ‘Vote for Person and not for Party’.
There are others who want to see the DAP fail in our efforts to mobilise public support and unity to defend our basic rights and freedoms and end the tyranny of the Barisan Nasional’s two-third majority in Parliament.
There is a group of people, for instance, whose sole aim in life appears to be to denigrate and try to destroy the DAP. From their ceramahs, it is clear that to them, the greatest enemies of the people in Malaysia are the DAP leaders and the DAP, who don’t deserve to exist in the Malaysian political arena. These people continues to spread the most vicious and malicious falsehoods against the DAP and DAP leaders. We have no time for these people, for we have more important things to concern ourselves with.
Recently, however, this group of people ‘pioneered’ a new political development in Malaysia. In the corporate world, it is a common practice for take-over of shell companies. In fact, there are people who make it their vocation to set up $2 companies to be taken over by others at the right price.
This practice of take-over of shell companies has now invaded the Malaysian political world.
It would appear that the Finance Minister’s call for ‘corporatisation’ of the stock market is heeded in some political parties, and we see recent examples of political take-over of ‘shell parties’. One political party which was recently the subject of a ‘take-over’ suddenly became very wealthy, with the most up-to-date computer system and modern office equipment. Like companies which had been taken over, the company name is often subsequently changed. This is also duplicated in the political world!
The DAP is not up for ‘take-over’ to the highest bidder, and no amount of the most modern and expensive computer system secret multi-million dollar could make DAP compromise our political principle and objectives.
DAP must however be realistic. No DAP leaders and candidate can contest the nest general elections in the belief that he is assured of victory. After the 1982 general elections debacle, where the DAP was totally wiped out in Perak at the parliamentary level, no DAP leader or candidates could assume that he is sure of victory.
Although the political conditions are favourable to DAP, all DAP leaders and candidates must fight the nest general elections expecting to lose. As far as the DAP national leadership is concerned, there is no single Parliamentary and State seat in the whole country in the next general election which is a ‘safe seat’ for DAP. Every seat will have o be fought and won.
The DAP wants to make it clear to the people that we are prepared to face an even worse defeat than in the 1982 general elections, if this is a decision of the people.