Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General MP or Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, at the DAP demonstration in protest against illegal Indonesian immigrants held in Pontian on Friday, 9.10.1987 at 8 a.m.
DAP to send a memorandum of protest to President Suharto of Indonesia to urge him to co-operate to stop the influx of illegal Indonesian immigrants into Malaysia and end the carnage and crimes committed by the illegals
This is the sixth protest demonstration held by the DAP since the launching of the month-long protest campaign in Johore on Sunday against the illegal Indonesian immigrants in the country, threatening the life, home, property and rights of Malaysians.
The DAP had in the past five days held protest demonstrations in Pekan Nanas, Kulai, Batu Pahat, Ayer Itam, and Johore Bahru, and will continue to hold demonstrations in other parts of Johore to make the government aware of its failure to take effective actions to protect Malaysians from the illegal Indonesian immigrants.
The people must make it clear to the Malaysian Government and the Indonesian authorities that their “patience have come to the limit” and they cannot tolerate anymore the influx of illegal Indonesian immigrants, because of the crimes they commit and the threat they post to the political, economic and national stabilitiy and harmony.
The DAP will send a memorandum of protest to President Suharto of Indonesia to urge him to co-operate to stop the influx of illegal Indonesian immigrants into Malaysia, and to end the carnage and crimes committed by the illegals.
In the past 10 years, a long list of Malaysians have become the victims of the crimes of illegal Indonesians, those who had been the direct targets of the spate of armed robbery, rape and murder and those whose family members and loved ones had been the victims.
Do we want this list of victims of illegal Indonesian immigrants to continue to lengthen, so that more and more Malaysians become victims of the crimes of illegal Indonesian immigrants?
In 1982, I wanted Parliament to adopt a motion to express grave concern at the worsening situation of illegal Indonesian immigrants in the country, and to demand that the government take firm and effective actins to protect Malaysians from the illegal Indonesian immigrants. This motion , however, was defeated by the Barisan Nasional Ministers and MPs, in particular from MCA and Gerakan.
If the MCA and Gerakan had put the interest of the people and country above their party interested, and stood up with the DAP in Parliamentary in 1982 to demand effective government action against illegal Indonesian immigrants, so many Malaysia lives would have been spared and so many Malaysians saved from their sufferings from being victims of illegal Indonesian immigrants.
I would assert that MCA and Gerakan leaders must bear part of the responsibility for every Malaysian who had been robbed, raped or murdered by illegal Indonesian immigrants in the past five years, for the MCA and Gerakan leaders had an opportunity in parliament in 1982 to put a stop to the influx of illegal Indonesian immigrants, but they failed to do so.
Today, there are over a million illegal Indonesian immigrants in the country. At this rate of entry, we will have two million illegal Indonesian immigrants in the 1990s!
Malaysians must stand up and demand a stop to the influx of illegal Indonesian immigrants, before more and more Malaysians become victims of crimes of the illegal Indonesians.