Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, when declaring open the Penang DAP Island General Elections Seminar at Auditorium C, Komtar, on Saturday, 21st April 1990 at 2.30 p.m.
DAP must be prepared to face any form of combination of attack by Gerakan, MCA and UMNO in the Battle for Tanjung 2 in the next general elections
In the next general elections which is expected to be held in the next hundred days, the Battle of Tanjung 2 in Penang is going to be a historic and key electoral contest for the country.
The success of the Tanjung 2 battle in Penang will shape not only the political future of Penang but the whole of Malaysia.
This is because of Tanjung 2 is not only important for DAP, but also crucial and critical to the Barisan Nasional component parties, and in particular Gerakan.
For this reason, DAP must be prepared or any form of combination of attack by Gerakan, MCA and UMNO in the Battle of Tanjung 2.
With the approach of the Gerakan elections, there have been more and more speculation in the press about the future line-up, as well as possible electoral contests.
For instance, there was a press report today that the Gerakan’s secret weapon is to field Dr. Koh Tsu Koon against me for both the Tanjung parliamentary and Kampong Kolam State Assembly seats in the next general elections.
MCA’s Datuk Khor Gark Kim, who had earlier suggested that the Penang Chief Ministership should be shared ‘half-half’ between the Gerakan and MCA, with an appointee from each party serving half the term, has suggested that in the Battle for Tanjung 2, Gerakan swap seats with the MCA in other states so that it would be a one-to-one battle between the Gerakan and DAP in Penang in the next general elections.
Alternatively, Gark Kim suggested that in exchange for MCA seats outside Penang, Gerakan should stay out of Penang and allow MCA to take on the DAP one-to-one in Penang in the next general elections.
Whatever the various forms of combinations and permutations of the Gerakan-MCA-UMNO attack on the DAP in the Battle of Tanjung 2, we will adopt the posture best described in the Chinese saying “Form a position of no change to face millions of changes”.
Call on idealistic Malaysians who want political change to come forward to register for the Tanjung 2 battle in the next general elections
The DAP’s Tajung 2 project can only succeed with the support of the people, not only on polling day to cast their vote, but even more important, to come forward to give their support, in terms of finance, manpower and all other forms of material contribution.
In the next general elections, election laws and regulations have been changed to make it more difficult for the DAP to operate. For instance, counting of voter will take place at the individual polling streams and not at a centralized counting centre for each Parliamentary constituency as in previous general elections.
This means that there will on the average be about 70 to 80 counting centres for each parliamentary constituency contested by the DAP. Dao will require a massive manpower of some 300 people to man the polling agents, counting agents and the polling booths outside
Out of these 300 people, at least half of them must be versed in the election laws and regulations to ensure that there is no hanky-panky during polling day.
The DAP had never operated with such massive manpower requiring some 300 people for each parliamentary constituency on polling day to be polling and counting agents – excluding the other election workers manning the elections machinery during the election campaign.
For this reason, I am sending out a message to idealistic Malaysians who want political change to come forward and ensure the success of the Tanjung 2 project in the next general elections. I call on them to come forward to register themselves with the DAP offering their services to the cause of Tanjung 2.
The DAP State Headquarters at Lorong Kinta, Penang will open a register from Monday onwards to enlist the support of all idealistic Malaysians who want to help to create political change in Penang and Malaysia in the next general elections.