By Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Peng on Monday, 17th September 1990:
The failure of the ‘1046’ trick of the Gerakan is an omen that the days of the Gerakan are numbered
Yesterday, a member of the public told me that the failure of the ‘1046’ trick of the Gerakan is an omen that the days of the Gerakan are numbered.
The Gerakan’s ‘1046’ trick has in fact become the joke of the year in Malaysian politics.
I have been waiting for the Gerakan President, Datuk Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, to open his mouth to defend the Gerakan’s ‘1046’ trick to establish that only a ‘foolish doctor’ like Keng Yaik could approve a ‘foolish trick’ like the ‘1045’ trick.
Sure enough, in Ayer Tawar yesterday, Keng Yaik publicly explained what the Gerakan’s ‘Reject 1045’ is supposed to mean.
In Penang, everybody is laughing at Keng Yaik and the Gerakan brains-trust which produced the ‘1046’ trick.
The people of Penang know that since the 3,000-people DAP Ceramah on 7th September to welcome the 27 Chinese educationists and civil rights activities, where I explained the message the Gerakan wanted to convey in their ‘Reject 1046’ poster campaign, Keng Yaik and his brains-trust had been cracking their heads for one whole week to think of a different interpretation for the ‘1046’!
At the Dap Ceramah on 7th September, I revealed that the Gerakan’s ‘Reject 1046’ is a call to reject the DAP’s Tanjung 2 project in Penang, by rejecting the present 10 DAP Assemblymen and the Semangat 46 in Penang.
As I told the 3,000 people at the DAP Ceramah, I agreed with the Gerakan poster campaign, for the combination of 10 DAP Assemblymen plus the Semangat 46 would not be enough to achieve the Tanjong 2 objective in Penang. As the Dap will be contesting in 20 Penang State seats in the next general elections, the DAP agrees with the Gerakan that the people should reject ‘1045’ and support ‘2046’ – which stands for support for the combination of 20 DAP Assemblymen and the Semangat 46 in Penang in the next general elections.
This is the second time in less than five months that the Gerakan Director for Publicity Bureau, Dr. Kang Chin Seng, – and one of the heads of the Gerakan brains – trust – had succeeded in making Keng Yaik live up to his reputation as a ‘foolish doctor’.
The first occasion was when Dr. Kang got Dr. Lim to concoct the lies about the so-called DAP-PAS secret talks in Jakarta in April this year, earning for the Gerakan President the title of an ‘incorrigible, inveterate and compulsive’ liar!
Dr. Kang was trying to redeem himself in thinking up the ‘Reject 1046’ poster campaign, as a counter to the DAP’s earlier poster campaign of 500 votes more is enough in Penang.
As I had publicly revealed the meaning of the Gerakan’s ‘Reject 1046’ poster campaign, and secured public support that the people should indeed reject ‘1046’ and go for ‘2046’, Dr. Kang and his ‘brains-trust’ had to come out with a different explanation.
This is what they have done, after Keng Yaik and the Gerakan ‘brains-trust’ had spent and agonized one whole week over it.
Dr. Lim gave the new but tortuous and complicated explanation of ‘1046’ in Ayer Tawar yesterday. He said 1 stands for DAP, 0 for PAS, and the poster campaign of ‘Reject 1046’ is a call to reject the combination of DAP, PAS and Semangat 46 – which he said wants to create an Islamic State in Malaysia.
This new and second explanation of ‘1046’ cannot be satisfactory for the Gerakan. If the ‘1046’ is the explanation that Keng Yaik had given, then it means that the DAP is the head of the Opposition coalition and that we are leading both PAS and Semangat 46. As the DAP is 100 per cent opposed to the concept of an Islamic State, this mean that the Dap, as ‘1’, is leading not only Semangat 46 but also PAS, getting PAS to accept the DAP’s clear position that there could be no Islamic State in Malaysia.
Surely, Gerakan should support an Opposition coalition led by DAP, as symbolized by the Gerakan’s ‘1046’, and not be calling for the rejection of ‘1046’. In actual fact of course, there is no co-operation or relationship between the DAP and PAS. DAP has only co-operation with Semangat 46.
This cannot therefore be the original meaning of the Gerakan’s ‘1046’ for the Gerakan would definite put ‘1’ symbolizing the DAP at the very end, to show that DAP had betrayed its principles and the people’s rights, and that the DAP is being led by the nose by Semangat 46 or PAS. The slogan the Gerakan would use would be ‘Reject 4601’ or even ‘Reject 0461’, but never ‘Reject 1046’!
May be Keng Yaik and the Gerakan ‘brains-trust’ would want to think of a more credible new interpretation for ‘Reject 1046’!
As far as the people of Penang are concerned, they want to thank Gerakan for the ‘Reject 1046’ posters as it would be a constant reminder of the need to ‘Reject 1046’ and ensure that in the next general elections, they bring ‘2046’ into being! Penang DAP is prepared to put some more of the Gerakan’s ‘Reject 1046’ posters for Gerakan!