Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, at the ‘Towards Tanjung 2’ Dinner organised by the Federal Territory, DAP State Committee in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, 28th May 1990 at 9 p.m.
Keng Yaik is the first Barisan Nasional leader to agree with Tengku Razaleigh that the Opposition parties can win 102 seats in the next general elections
Gerakan President, Datuk Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, is the first Barisan Nasional leader to agree with Semangat 46 President, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah’s prediction that the Opposition parties can win 102 seats in the next general elections.
At the Penang Gerakan General Assembly on 20th May 1990, Keng Yaik said that with DAP’s help, PAS can win 25 Parliamentary seats in the next general elections.
Keng Yaik’s lies that the DAP is helping PAS to create an Islamic State has now been publicly established following DAP’s proof that Keng Yaik had told a big lie about the so-called secret DAP-PAS meeting in Jakarta in April.
What is most revealing is that Keng Yaik thinks that PAS could win up to 25 Parliamentary seats in the next general elections. I do not agree with Keng Yaik, as I do not expect PAS to win more than a dozen seats, even if there is a big swing against the Barisan National in the next general elections.
However, Keng Yaik’s forecast that PAS can win up to MPs in the next general elections is interesting, because it means that he is in fact forecasting that Barisan Nasional and Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed can lose power, and that Tengku Razaleigh could be the fifth Malaysian Prime Minister after the next general elections.
This is because if PAS can win up to 25 parliamentary seats in the next general elections, it can only mean that Semangat 46 can win at least 40-45 Parliamentary seats, as Semangat 46 will be contesting in more parliamentary seats than PAS.
If PAS wins 25 MPs, Semangat 46 wins say 45 MPs, then it should not be difficult for the DAP to win at least 35 seats – which will mean that the Opposition would have exceeded the total of 102 seats forecast by Tengku Razaleigh.
When Tengku Razaleigh made the forecast that the Opposition parties could win 102 parliamentary seats in the next general elections, UMNO Youth leader, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, scoffed at it and described it as a ‘day-dream’. Najib said that “even in the worst scenario, UMNO will win at least 73 seats.”
Barisan Nasional is in weakest position of any ruling coalition in Malaysia and its leaders are having cold feet about the next general elections
However, Keng Yaik has publicly disagreed with Najib that Tengku Razaleigh was ‘daydreaming’. This is because going by Keng Yaik’s own calculation that PAS can win 25 MPs, and with Semangat 46 winning 45 MPs, then in such a worst scenario, UMNO would win less than 20 seats and not the 73 seats as claimed by Najib. UMNO contested in 82 parliamentary constituencies in the 1986 general elections.
Barisan Nasional is in the weakest position of any ruling coalition in Malaysia and this is why its leaders are having cold feet about the next general elections.
Both the MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik, and the Gerakan President, Datuk Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, are shopping around for a safer seat than their present constituency to contest in the next general elections.
This has been openly conceded by Keng Yaik in Ipoh yesterday, who admitted that he was also eyeing Taiping and Nibong Tebal.
In a Sunday interview yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister, Ghafar Baba, said he was confident of public support for the Barisan Nasional in the next general elections, because the issues that the Opposition are using, like the removal of Tun Salleh Abas and the independence of the judiciary, are stale or long-forgotten by the majority of the people.
This statement by Ghafar Baba holds the key to the reason for Ghafar and Barisan Nasional’s hopes of victory in the next general elections – that the people would have a very short memory, and would have forgotten about the erosion of democratic freedoms, violation of human rights, the corruption, financial and moral scandals in the country in the past four years after 1986.
If Ghafar is right that the people have forgotten about the Operation Lalang mass detentions under the Internal Security Act of 106 Opposition leaders and government critics; the assault on the Judiciary and the principle of independence of the Judiciary with the sacking of Lord President, Tun Salleh Abas and two Supreme Court judges; the draconian amendments to the Official Secrets Act, the Internal Security Act, the Printing Presses and Publications Act and the Police Act to suffocate democracy; the financial and moral scandals like the $3.4 billion UEM North-South Highway Scandal, the $1.6 billion Co-operative Finance Scandal and the Vijandran pornographic videotapes scandal; then Barisan Nasional should be safe.
But if the people’s memory are not that short, but are merely waiting for the general elections to render a full reckoning as to the Barisan Nasional’s stewardship of the government and the country in the past four years, then the Barisan Nasional can be in trouble, and what Tengku Razaleigh had forecast, and agreed to by Keng Yaik, may yet come to pass.
Barisan Nasional will use the triple politics of money, lies and fear to try to win in the next general elections
The Barisan Nasional component parties will be using the triple politics of money, lies and fear to try to win in the next general elections.
They will use money to buy votes and voters, or frighten the voters that they will be denied development funds if they vote the Opposition. They will use lies to deceive the voters – and they have already started on this campaign as in the lies about the so-called DAP-PAS secret meeting in Jakarta or that DAP wants to create an Islamic State now being spread by Keng Yaik and Gerakan.
They will also use the political of fear, and the main weapon in their arsenal of fear is to threaten that there would be another May 13 if the Opposition wins.
All these tactics mark a Barisan Nasional which is jittery and very unsure about its ability to retain public support and confidence in the next general elections.