Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General, MP for Tanjong and Assemblyman for Kampong Kolam, Lim Kit Siang, at the inaugural meeting of the DAP Constituency Service and Monitoring Committee held at DAP Petaling Jaya Headquarters on Tuesday, August 19, 1986 at 7.30 pm
The 24 DAP Mps and 37 Assemblyman will be given one month to submit a report to the party leadership on their constituency service arrangements and performance
The establishment of the DAP Constituency Service and Monitoring Committee by the DAP Central Executive Committee at its first post-election meeting on August 8 reflects the seriousness and priority the party gives to constituency service by DAP Mps and Assemblyman.
Constituency service is one of the three duties of DAP Mps and Assemblyman, the other two being to help expand the party’s political development, particularly in their constituency, and to articulate the people’s voice and aspirations.
Sdr. Lee Lam Thye is the model Member of Parliament in constituency service, and it is for this reason that the DAP Central Executive Committee has appointed him to be the Chairman of the DAP Constituency Service and Monitoring Committee in recognition and appreciation of his constituency performance.
There are Barisan Nasional ‘agent provocateurs’ who are now busily at work in various mass media trying to create divisions and rifts between party leaders, and one favourite target is the Lim Kit Siang-Lee Lam Thye rift, while another latest target is the is the Lim Kit Siang-Karpal Singh rift.
The argument whether an MP should concentrate on constituency service or on national issues is an artificial one, for an elected representive must be able to look after both.
This is why another committee has been formen by the DAP Centrel Executive Committee to ensure that the DAP Mps and Assemblyman can improve on their performance as the spokesman of the people in Parliament, the State Assemblies as well as outside.
The DAP Central Executive Committee has asked the DAP Constituency Service and Monitoring Committee to submit regular reports so that the CEC could periodically review and assess the constituency performance of every DAP Parliamentary or State Assembly constituency.
Sdr. Lee Lam Thye, as Chairman of the Committee, will also be making periodic visits to the DAP constituencies to see for himself the constituency services being provided by DAP Mps and Assemblymen.
For a start, the 24 DAP Mps and 37 Assemblymen will be given one month to submit a report to the party leadership on their constituency service arrangements and performance. Members of the public who are not happy about the constituency service arrangements of any DAP MP or Assemblymen are welcome to write in their complaints to Sdr, Lee Lam Thye or the DAP Constituency Service and Monitoring Committee.
A two-day seminar for the 24 DAP Mps and Assemblymen will be held within the next six weeks to spell out to them their three-fold functions as the public standard-bearers of the party.
At this two-day seminar, the constituency service arrangements and performance of the DAP Mps and Assemblymen would also be reviewed.