Kit Siang to send formal invitation to Liong Sik and Keng Yaik to jointly visit Kelantan and meet the Kelantan Mentri Besar over the so-called ’70 Islamisation measures’

by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Friday, 18th January 1992:

Kit Siang to send formal invitation to Liong Sik and Keng Yaik to jointly visit Kelantan and meet the Kelantan Mentri Besar over the so-called ’70 Islamisation measures’

In the past few months, there had been ceaseless attacks from the MCA and Gerakan accusing the DAP for being responsible for the so-called ’62 Islamisation measures’ in Kelantan in its first 12 months of office.

In actual fact, using their criteria, MCA and Gerakan could claim that the PAS Kelantan State Government had done even more worse than ’62 Islamisation measures’, for in the past three months there had been another eight measures which the MCA and Gerakan leaders could also use to claim that PAS Kelantan State Government had implemented ’70 Islamisation measures’ since it came into power in the last general elections.

Just as I had challenged the MCA President, Datuk Seri Dr.Ling Liong Sik and the Gerakan President, Datuk Dr.Lim Keng Yaik, to declare their stand on every one of the so-called ‘62 Islamisation measures’, I am now challenging them to declare their stand on each of the additional eight Islamisation measures which made a total of ’70 Islamisation measures’.

These additional eight measures are:

63. Menggalakkan berpolligami;

64. Papan tanda mesti disertakan dengan tulisan Jawi. Saiz tulisan-tulisan yang lain haruslah lebih kecil daripada tulisan Bahasa Malaysia dan tulisan Jawi.

65. State Economic Development Corporation akan diubah secare beransur-ansur menjadi pertubuhan sosio-ekonomi Islam.

66.Wanita Muslim yang hendak berkahwin mesti menyediakan foto yang menunjukkan bahawa beliau memakai pakaian Islam dan bertudung.

67. Diharamkan penjualan arak. Tetapi arak masih boleh dibawa masuk dari negeri-negeri lain dan diminum didalam rumah atau digunakan dalam upacara agama.

68. Akan membincangkan strategi memperkenalkan Hukum Hudud di dalam mesyuarat undangan negeri yang akan datang.

69. Hanya produk-produk yang dibenarkan oleh undang-undang syariah sahaja boleh diiklankan.

70. Semua kedai mesti henti berniaga pada setiap tengahari iaitu semasa para Muslim bersembahyang.
It was very pathetic to see the initial mindless reactions of the headless and faceless MCA and Gerakan ‘cultural assassins’, when I first challenged Liong Sik and Keng Yaik to declare the MCA and Gerakan stand on the first five of the so-called ’62 Islamisation measures’.

They thought that I had looked for five of the 62 Islamisation measures with the ‘east Islamic coloration’ had that the DAP was defending and supporting all the ’62 Islamisation measures’.

As a result, these headless and nameless MCA and Gerakan publicists had been made to look very foolish when u went on to list out all the other 62, and now 70, of the so-called ‘Islamisation measures’ for Liong Sik and Keng Yaik to declare the MCA and Gerakan stand!

Let Liong Sik and Keng Yaik publicly declare the MCA and Gerakan policy is to oppose all Islamisation measures by PAS but support all Islamisation measures by UMNO

Liong Sik and Keng Yaik should declare the MCA and Gerakan stand on these ’70 Islamisation measures’, whether they oppose and condemn everyone of these 70 measures and want the DAP leaders to protest and demand their total abolition when we meet the Kelantan Mentri Besar, Nik Abdul Aziz.

Or are Liong Sik and Keng Yaik prepared to publicly declare that they oppose all the ’70 Islamisation measures’, and that the MCA and Gerakan policy is to support all Islamisation measures of UMNO but to oppose all Islamisation measures of PAS?

Leaders of political parties, if they are going to be respected, must be prepared to defend their party policies even in the heartland of their political opponents.

I will be officially inviting Liong Sik and Keng Yaik to jointly visit Kelantan and meet the Kelantan Mentri Besar over the so-called ’70 Islamisation measures’, which will also be an opportunity for them to justify their policy stand to support all Islamisation measures of UMNO but to oppose all Islamisation measures of PAS.