Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, at the Penang DAP Ceramah to welcome into DAP the 27 Chinese educationists and civil rights activists held at Penang Chinese Town Hall on Friday, 7th September 1990 at 8 p.m.
For the nation’s sake, Dr. Mahathir should call off the Barisan Nasional campaign of lies against the Opposition and fight the general elections in a clean and honest contest
Recently, under the influence of the UMNO Secretary-General and Information Minister, Datuk Rahmat Mohamed, the Barisan Nasional Government is very fond of getting into the Guinness Book of Records and doing things nobody or no other country had ever done before.
This is why the Barisan Nasional Government spend $9 million to build a ‘snow garden’ in Selangor for visitors to see the four seasons – spring, summer, autumn and winter – in the tropics as no other country or government had been so misguided as to waste public funds in this fashion.
When the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, visited Malacca early this week as part of his pre-election tour, he was hailed as ‘Liberator of the Third World’ in full-page advertisement in the English-language newspaper. This is another Guinness Book Record as no one has yet proclaimed himself as ‘Liberator of the Third World’!
Recently, the Barisan Nasional had also been creating political history in another manner. Never before in Malaysian history had the government leaders been telling so many lies about the Opposition, that if these lies are collected together, it would be quite a thick volume!
What is most shocking is that these lies are not told by state or branch leaders but by the highest government and political leaders, including the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, the Deputy Minister, Ghafar Baba, the Education Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, and all the other leaders of the other Barisan Nasional component parties, like Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik, Datuk Dr. Lim Keng Yaik and Datuk Samy Vellu.
In fact, this campaign of lies has extended its tentacles to rope in more and more people, such as the Penang Chief Minister, Dr. Lim Chong Eu, and the latest recruit is his successor-designate, the Gerakan MP for Nibong Tebal, Dr. Goh Cheng Teik who wrote a sickeningly deceitful newspaper column recently alleging that the DAP supports PAS in wanting to establish an Islamic State!
Barisan Nasional leaders should ask themselves whether it is worth wining the general elections if they have to become liars, cheats and even blackmailers?
Dr. Mahathir and Anwar Ibrahim often talk about moral and spiritual values, and I want to remind them that telling blatant lies violate the most basic moral and spiritual values.
Dr. Mahathir is chairing a UMNO Supreme Council meeting tomorrow where the general elections is top on the agenda. I urge him for the nation’s sake to promote a generation grounded in strong moral and spiritual values, and call off the Barisan Nasional campaign of lies and to fight the general elections in a clean and honest manner.
The Barisan Nasional leaders must search their own conscience and ask themselves whether it is worth winning the next general elections if they have to become liars, cheats and even black mailers threatening the voters with a May 13 if the voters support the Opposition?
This is why when I met Dr. Mahathir on July 9 to discuss about the Commonwealth Observer Mission, I stressed that the general elections should meet the four criteria of being ‘free, fair, clean and honest’, and that this should also constitute the terms of reference of the Commonwealth observers.
However, Dr. Mahathir later developed second thoughts, for clearly, it would not be possible for the general elections to pass the test of being ‘free, fair, clean and honest’ is the Barisan Nasional Government is going to embark on a campaign of lies about the Opposition, making full use of its control and monopoly of the mass media, particularly the electronic media of radio and television.
DAP to publish a book on the lies and blackmail of the Barisan Nasional leaders if they persist in the campaign of lies
I call on Dr. Mahathir to make a clear-cut statement tomorrow whether his announcement in Parliament on June 21 on the government’s preparedness to invite a Commonwealth Observer Mission to Malaysia still stands, as the Opposition have all expressed their agreement. I also call on Dr. Mahathir to call of the Barisan Nasional campaign of lies and blackmail, or the DAP will have to publish a book to expose these lies and blackmail.