1990 National Day Message by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, released in Penang on August 30, 1990.
Call on Malaysians to decide for change in the 1990s to save democracy, fight corruption and build national unity.
Malaysians will celebrate the 3rd National Day which will also take Malaysia into the last decade of the 20th century.
What should concern thinking Malaysians about the last decade of Malaysian about the last decade of Malaysian nation-building are the following:
I. the grave erosion of democratic freedoms and human rights of Malaysians as evidenced by the panoply of repressive laws and the government’s undemocratic actions, like the Internal Security Act and the Operation Lalang mass arrests, the Official Secretes Act, the Printing Presses and Publishing Act, the Police Act, the attack on the Judiciary and the undermining of the independence of the Election Commission;
II. The shocking collapse in standards of integrity and morality of public office-holders, including political leaders holding high government office, resulting in rampant and unheard-scale of corruption, greed, abuse of power and breach of trust.
III. The grave disunity among the Malaysian people, affecting not only the political parties, but reaching the trade unions, the civil service, the judges and even the rulers. The National Economic Policy is a great failure with regard to its overriding objective to achieve national unity.
Malaysians will celebrate the 33rd National Day with the approaching general elections very much in mind. Polling had been forecast for Sept.15 or 22, although another scenario puts dissolution after the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, has returned from South Korea and the United Nations – with polling in early October.
Be that as it may, the next general elections offer to Malaysians of all races throughout the country the first great opportunity for change in the Malaysian history.
Malaysians must dare to decide for change in the next general elections to save democracy, declare war on corruption, foster national unity – and establish socio-economic justice for all Malaysians.