Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, at the official opening of the Pahang DAP State Leadership ‘Party Reform’ conference held at Centrepoint, Temerloh on Sunday, 12th January 1992 at 10 a.m.
DAP to declare its stand on the so-called ’62 Islamisation measures’ of the PAS Kelantan State Government in its first year of office before the visit of DAP leaders to Kelantan
For the past week , I issued five challenges to the MCA President, Datuk Dr.Ling Liong Sik and the Gerakan President, Datuk Dr.Lim Keng Yaik to declare the MCA and Gerakan stand on the each one of the so-called ’62 Islamisation measures’ of the PAS Kelantan State Government in its first year of office.
I challenged Liong Sik and Keng Yaik whether the MCA and Gerakan ___ want the DAP leaders, during our visit to Kelantan to meet PAS Kelantan State Government leaders and the public, to protest against everyone of the 62 measures and to demand their abolition.
There had only been silence from Liong Sik and Keng Yaik, although for the past few months, the MCA and Gerakan had been making virtually daily attack on the DAP for being responsible for these ’62 Islamisation measures’ of the PAS Kelantan State Government in its first year of office.
At first, after my first challenge on the five of the ’62 Islamisation measures’, lowly MCA and Gerakan officials or their nameless and faceless bureaus had issued statements complaining why I had selected five measures ‘lacking in Islamic coloration’!
But when I continues with my daily challenge to go through all the ’62 Islamisation measures’, even the lowly MCA and Gerakan officials and their nameless and faceless bureaus fell silent!
It is very clear that the MCA and Gerakan have no political principles and this is why Liong Sik and Keng Yaik dare not respond to the five DAP challenges on the ’62 Islamisation measures’.
MCA and Gerakan leaders do not oppose Islamic state or Islamisation measures detrimental to non-Muslim rights and interests. They are only opposed to PAS, and every action of PAS Kelantan State Government, whether good or bad, is blindly opposed by them.
On the other hand, as political parasites of UMNO, MCA and Gerakan leaders blindly support UMNO, including UMNO’s Islamisation measures, whether at the Federal or other State Government level, which are prejudicial to the rights and interests of non-Muslim Malaysians.
MCA and Gerakan leaders dishonouring the Chinese community in giving the Malaysian Muslims the impression that the Chinese oppose steps to combat corrupt practices and waste of public funds
Should UMNO decide to adopt the objective of Islamic State, MCA and Gerakan leaders would compete as to who would be the first to express its support-for to MCA and Gerakan leaders, what is important in not what is a policy, but who is behind the policy!
This is why great difference between the DAP on the one hand and MCA and Gerakan on the other. The DAP will never take the stand that UMNO’s Islamisation policies and measures are good but PAS’ Islamisation policies and measures are bad.
DAP will oppose Islamisation measures which are detrimental to the rights and interests of non-Muslim Malaysians-whether from PAS or UMNO.
There is no doubt that out if the so-called ’62 Islamisation measures’, there are some which deserve the support of all right-thinking Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or political party. For instance, every political party should support the first, second, third and fifth of the ’62 Islamisation measures’ aimed to curbing corrupt practices and waste of public funds. If these steps are taken by the UMNO leaders, I will also publicly support them.
But the MCA and Gerakan leaders are different, where they could even oppose and condemn measures taken by the PAS Kelantan State Government to prevent corruption and waste of public funds.
In taking such a stand, which is blind to the merits or demerits of individual measures, the MCA and Gerakan leaders are in fact dishonouring the Chinese community in so far as they claim to represent the Malaysian Chinese.
This is because they give the Malays and the Malaysian Muslims the impression that the Chinese as represented by MCA and Gerakan oppose measures aimed at fighting corrupt practices and waste of public funds.
The DAP’s stand on the so-called ’62 Islamisation measures’ of the PAS Kelantan State Government in its first year of office will be based on their individual merits or demerits and not on whether it is associated with PAS or UMNO.
The DAP will publicly state its stand on the ’62 Islamisation measures’ before the visit of the DAp leaders to Kelantan to meet PAS Kelantan State Government leaders and the public. Where the PAS Kelantan State Government had taken measures which are detrimental to the rights and interests of non-Muslim Malaysians, the DAP will not mince words in declaring our opposition.
The DAP is also compiling the other reported ’Islamisation measures’ of the PAS Kelantan State Government of the past tree months, and will also declare its stand on these other ‘Islamisation measures’ at the same time.
Does Vision 2020 abolish the distinction of bumiputeras and non-bumiputeras with the concept of Bangsa Malaysia in 30-years’ time?
In his speech at the official opening of the Third Bumiputera Economic Congress on Friday, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr.Mahathir Mohamed, called for the integration of bumiputera and non-bumiputera economies to prevent ill-feelings and jealously from any quarter. Dr.Mahathir said that the country could not afford to have two separate economies and that co-operation between the two was not only good in efforts to achieve the objectives of the New Economic Policy and the National Development Policy, but for politics and the nation as well.
The question is how and why Malaysia has got two separate and distinct bumiputera and non-bumiputera economies?
The best basis for bumiputera and non-bumiputera businessman to co-operate in commerce and industry is to work together as Malaysians, and not as bumiputeras and non-bumiputeras.
When is the Barisan Nasional Government going to recognise that the differentiation of Malaysians into bumiputeras and non-bumiputeras is the greatest stumbling block to the full harnessing of great economic potential and resources of Malaysians?
Two weeks ago, at the Federation of Chinese Teaches Association grand dinner in honour of his 80th birthday, the redoubtable champion for Chinese education, Mr.Sim Moh Yu, spoke of his two hopes for Malaysia and the Chinese community.
One of them is that all races are equal citizens of Malaysia and that the distinction and division of Malaysians into bumiputeras and non-bumiputeras would cease and end.
Last Sunday, at the opening of the Perak DAP State Leadership ‘Party Reform’ Conferencem DAP National Chairman, Dr.Chen Man Hin, reiterated the DAP call for the end of the division of Malaysians into bumiputeras and non-bumiputeras as the basis for creating a united Malaysia citizenry and people.
DAP calls on the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr.Mahathir Mohamed, to declare his Vision 2020 abolishes the division into bumiputeras and non-bumiputeras with the concept of Bangsa Malaysia in 30-years’ time or whether Malaysians would continue to be divided into bumiputeras and non-bumiputeras?
Call on Anwar Ibrahim to modify and extent the $500 million ASB revolving fund to ensure that all hardcore poor Malaysians regardless of race would be entitled to $5,000 interest-free loan
Last week, the Finance Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, announced a $500 million revolving fund to enable the ‘hardcore poor Bumiputeras’ to invest in Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB) shares, whereby $5,000 interest-free loans would be given to ‘hard-core poor Bumiputeras’.
This announcement is most unfortunate, for it serves as a reminder to non-Malay Malaysians of the discrimination against the ‘hard-core non-Bumiputeras poor’!
The creation of a new division between the ‘hardcore poor Bumiputera’ and ‘hardcore poor non-Bumiputera’ where the ‘hardcore poor Bumiputera’ gets preferential treatment denied to the ‘hardcore poor non-Bumiputera’ is a most retrograde step as the government is creating even more divisions among Malaysians. What a responsible government should do is to reduce and eliminate such divisions altogether instead of inventing new ones!
If the Government is committed to fight poverty regardless of race, it should help the hard-core poor of all races without any distinction whatsoever.
I call on Anwar Ibrahim to scrap such indefensible new distinctions between the ‘hardcore poor Bumiputeras’ and ‘hardcore poor non-Bumiputeras’, and to make modifications to the $500 million ASB revolving fund, whereby the hardcore poor Malaysian, regardless of race, would be entitled to $5,000 interest-free loan in the ASB.