Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, at the DAPSY Ceramah held at Batu Lanchang Balai Raya, Penang on Satur¬day, 11 August, 1990 at 8 pm.
Gerakan leadership is most pathetic in insisting that the anti-Mahathir vote in the Sabah general elections is an anti-DAP vote.
The Gerakan has distributed an eight-page attack on the DAP in Penang in the past few days, centered on two main issues, the defeat of the DAP in the Sabah state general elections and the Islamic State issue.
The Gerakan leadership is most pathetic in insisting that the anti-Mahathir vote in the Sabah state
general elections last month is an anti-DAP vote. The Gerakan leadership thinks that the people
of Penang and Peninsular Malaysia are easy to fool and mislead, but the Gerakan leadership is
sadly mistaken.
A lot of people in Penang and Peninsular Malaysia visit Sabah or have friends or contacts from
Sabah, and they know the true meaning of the Sabah state general elections.
If the Sabah state general elections is a anti-DAP vote, then why is it that up to now, the Prime
Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, could not find the time to congratulate
Datuk Joseph Pairin Kitingan and PBS for their 36-seat victory in the Sabah state general elections?
This is very significant when Dr. Mahathir had the time to send congratulatory cable for the
Barisan Nasional victories in Kuala Linggi and Kijal, the latter when he was the other side of
the globe in Venezuela, but he had no time to congratulate Joseph Pairin in the past month for
the PBS winning 36 seats.
Is the Gerakan President brave enough to propose at the next Barisan Nasional Supreme Council
meeting that the Barisan Nasion¬al officially commend and congratulate PBS for its victory in the
Sabah state general elections?
Definitely not, because the Gerakan leader would infuriate Dr. Mahathir, as raising the Sabah state general elections results would be a slap in the face of Mahathir as the result is an anti-Mahathir and
anti-Barisan Nasional Federal Government vote.
When the Sabah DAP State Committee made the decision to contest in the Sabah state general
elections, I knew we could end up with two results, either a breakthrough in Sabah with a few
DAP Assem¬blymen elected into the Sabah Assembly, or all the DAP candidates being defeated
and many also losing deposits.
I asked the Sabah DAP leaders whether the PBS would defi¬nitely be returned to power and
Datuk Joseph Pairin Kitingan be re¬elected as Sabah Chief Minister.
This is because the DAP would only stand a chance of making a breakthrough in Sabah state
assembly politics if the people had no doubt in their minds that the PBS would comfortably be
returned to power and Datuk Joseph Pairin re-elected as Sabah Chief Minister.
There are two reasons why the question of PBS again form¬ing the Sabah state government was
uppermost in the minds of the people of Sabah, firstly, they do not want either Tun Mustapha’s
USNO or Datuk Harris Salleh’s PBS to become the new Sabah state government, and secondly,
because they want the PBS to form the Sabah state government to stand up to the Barisan Nasional Federal Government and Dr. Mahathir for the constitutional rights and status of the Sabahans.
It is only when the Sabah people are absolutely confident that the PBS would be returned as the new
State Government that the DAP stands a chance of having a few of its candidates elected in the State Assembly, to play the role of an Opposition.
DAP Sabah State Committee told me that there was no doubt whatsoever that the Datuk Joseph
Pairin would again become the Chief Minister and the PBS returned to power, with more than
two-third majority in the Sabah State Assembly.
I told the Sabah DAP leaders that in those circumstances, their challenge was to convince the
people of Sabah that the PBS would have no problem in being comfortably returned to power.
The DAP Sabah State Committee’s analysis was correct, but so was mine. In the last few days
of the Sabah state general elec¬tions, the PBS was able to convince the people of Sabah, that they
might lose power and may not be able to form the next Sabah state government.
In panic, the people who were inclined to vote for the DAP, voted for the PBS, The DAP was
sacrificed in the process.
DAP does not regard our defeat in the Sabah state general elections as an anti-DAP vote, for
it was clearly an anti-Mahathir vote. I am confident that in the coming Parliamentary general
elec¬tions, the DAP stands a good chance not only of winning our present four Parliamentary
seats in Sabah, but also to increase the seats.