Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, at the Petaling Jaya Old Town Branch committee meeting at Petaling Jaya on Thursday, April 24, 1986 at 8 pm
Chinese support for the PAS’ struggle of an Islamic State in the coming general elections will only give UMNO an opportunity to seriously implement an Islamic State in Malaysia after the polls
There is a strange and uncommon political activity in Chinese organisations, associations and societies recently, for there is a concerted plan by an organised group to get the Chinese national organisations to come out openly in support of PAS in the next general elections.
The people behind this campaign were the ones who, in the 1982 general elections, supported the Tung Chiau Chung’s strategy of ‘Attack into the Barisan to rectify the Barisan’. This 1982 strategy has proved to be a great failure, for it not only failed to rectify the Barisan Nasional in its nation-building policies, the Malaysian Chinese find that their political, economic, educational, social, cultural and religious rights never experienced such unprecedented and wide-ranging erosion in to four years since 1982 as compared to the 25 years from 1957 to 1982.
For the coming general elections, these people have a new strategy, to support the PAS, purportedly to ‘change government’.
These people had brought ‘disaster’ to the people in the 1982 general elections because of their catastrophic strategy. What is there to ensure that this new strategy of theirs, to mobilise Chinese support for PAS to the extent of even fighting the DAP, would not be even more disastrous and datastrophic than their 1982 gambit?
These people must be the only non-Muslims in the world who are openly advocating the Islamic State concept of PAS. These people are not bothered or concerned about the meaning of an Islamic State, but only interested in supporting PAS in the urban areas to split the DAP voters either the Gerakan or MCA candidates.
These people are not bothered that in an Islamic state, non-Muslims cannot be entrusted with the responsibility of framing the general policy of the State, or dealing with matter vital to its safety and integrity; and cannot be Members of Parliament, Assemblymen, Ministers, Prime Minster’ or even be top government officials or judges.
These people are not bothered that in an Islamic State, the present Constitution would have to be scrapped, replaced by an Islamic Constitution based on the Koran, and where only Muslims can interpret and amend the Constitution.
These people are not bothered that in an Islamic State, the people will cease to have the voting rights as at present, for in an Islamic State, non-Muslims cannot vote to influence the national direction or the laws. This is because in an Islamic State, power is no more derived from the people (as at present) but from the Koran!
These people are only interested in giving support to the PAS struggle of an Islamic State so long as in the urban areas, it would split DAP voters to enable Gerakan and MCA candidates to win by default!
Although these people want the Chinese organisations, associations and societies to support the PAS in the next general elections, on the ground that with such support PAS could translate its present one Member of Parliament to at least 91 MPs in next general elections to form the next national government, nobody believes it.
These people do not believe it themselves, for all they want is to deny the DAP from winning and to help Gerakan or MCA candidates. PAS does not believe it, but it does the Islamic party noharm to have a group of very enthusiastic non-Muslim Chinese running around in Chinese society selling the PAS’ objective of an Islamic State.
The UMNO is not very upset, for it is sure of forming the next general government, with the DAP;s chances in the next general elections undermined by these group of PAS supporters in the Chinese community.
In fact, if the Malaysian Chinese demonstrate that they give some measure of support to the PAS’ struggle of an Islamic State in the coming general elections, when UMNO is returned to power, it would have the justification and opportunity to seriously implement an Islamic State in Malaysia after the polls.
We must not forget that there are also people in UMNO who want to establish an Islamic State. Voices calling for an Islamic State is not only heard from PAS, but also from inside UMNO, demanding the replacement of the present Malaysian Constitution with an Islamic Constitution.
In September 1985, when opening a seminar on Concept of the Islamic State in Petaling Jaya, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, said that the creation of an Islamic State would take tens of years, and the first step would be to make Islam the official religion.
If these strategists succeed n getting some Chinese electoral support for PAS, even if the PAS or PAS-sponsored candidate loses (and even worst, cause the DAP to lose), it will be a signal to UMNO that it could shorten the time span for establishment of an Islamic State in Malaysia. When this happens, who is to blame but the Chinese and these ‘election strategists’ who want the Chinese to support PAS against the DAP, and who in 1982, wanted the voters to support the Tung-Chiau-Chung-supported Gerakan against the DAP?
I would call on these people who are working for the PAS cause for the coming general elections to come out openly to explain to the Malaysian Chinese community why they are supporting the cause of an Islamic State in Malaysia. Would they also support an Islamic State movement by the UMNO Government after the next general elections?