Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, at the Penang Wanita DAP Chinese New Year reception held at Penang DAP Hqrs on Sunday, 9th February 1992 at 8 p.m.
Call MCA and Gerakan Ministers and leaders to publicly apologise for conducting their campaign of lies in the past few months about the oppression and persecution of the Chinese in Kelantan which ranks as one of the most dishonourable episodes in the nation’s 35-year history
Until the visit of the DAP delegation to Kelantan from January 26-28, the Chinese outside Kelantan had fallen victim of the campaign of lies of the MCA and Gerakan in the past few months and believed that the Chinese in Kelantan are in ‘deep waters and furnace heat’, and are ‘oppressed’ and ‘persecuted’ by the PAS-led Kelantan State Government because of Islamisation measures which infringe non-Muslim rights and interests.
The MCA and Gerakan campaign of les of past few months about the oppression and persecution of the Chinese in Kelantan had been so successful that the Chinese outside Kelantan believe in several of the following allegation:
1. The Chinese in Kelantan cannot eat or sell pork;
2. They cannot drink beer publicly but must ‘hide and drink steathily’;
3. They cannot buy or sell liquor;
4. They must stop business during Muslim prayers;
5. They cannot go to unisex saloons;
6. Chinese women must cover their heads and wear Islamic attire;
7. Chinese women cannot work night shift; and
8. Chinese business signboards must be taken down and replaced with Jawi characters.
When DAP leaders went to Kelantan, we have no idea which of the eight, or whether all these eight, allegations would be proved true to substantiate the MCA and Gerakan campaign about the oppression and persecution of the Chinese in Kelantan.
But we were prepared to raise these issues and to protest against their injustice in our meeting with the Kelantan Mentri Besar, Haji Nik Aziz Nik Mat, if any of these eight allegations proved to be true. The DAP leaders went to Kelantan not to defend or justify any policy of the PAS-led Kelantan State Government, but to champion the Chinese in Kelantan against any infringement of their rights.
During our visit, the DAP delegation visited not just Kota Bahru, but the other towns as well , like Pasir Mas, Tanah Merah, Machang, Kuala Krai , Pulai, Gua Musang, Pasir Puteh and Tumpat.
Wherever we went, we would ask the Chinese in these areas about their ‘plight’. Nobody could give a specific instance of the Chinese in Kelantan being oppressed and persecuted by Islamisation measures which infringe non-Muslim rights and interests – and a number referred to newspaper reports and statements and speeches by MCA and Gerakan leaders as the source of their information about the ‘oppression’ and ‘persecution’ of the Cinese in Kelantan.
Yesterday, in my letter to the MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik and the Gerakan President, Datuk Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, formally proposing the conclusion of a Three-Lim ‘Year of the Monkey’ Declaration opposing Islamic State and Islamisation measures, I thanked them for causing the DAP to send a fact-finding delegation to Kelantan which established their campaign of lies which they could not rebut.
MCA and Gerakan Ministers and leaders are the greatest enemies of the Vision 2020 of Malaysia becoming a fully developed nation
The MCA and Gerakan Ministers and leaders should be thoroughly ashamed of their campaign of lies about the oppression and persecution of the Chinese in Kelantan by Islamisation measures of the PAS-led Kelantan State Government infringing non-Muslim rights and interests.
The MCA and Gerakan campaign ranks as one of the most dishonest and dishonourable episodes in the nation’s 35-year political history.
I call on the MCA and Gerakan Ministers and leaders to have the decency to publicly apologise for this campaign of lies, now that the DAP delegation to Kelantan have found that none of the eight allegations of the oppression and persecution of the Chinese in Kelantan is true.
What the MCA and Gerakan Ministers and leaders have done are against the Vision 2020 becoming a fully developed country as proclaimed by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, last year.
The MCA and Gerakan Ministers and leaders seem to have forgotten the nine central strategic challenges which Dr. Mahathir said must be overcome if Vision 2020 of Malaysia as a fully developed nation is to be achieved.
I want to remind the MCA and Gerakan Ministers of the fourth of the nine central strategic challenges spelt out by Dr. Mahathir: “The fourth is the challenge of establishing a fully moral and ethical society, whose citizens are strong in religious and spiritual values and imbued with the highest of ethical standards.”
When the MCA and Gerakan Ministers and leaders, for their own selfish and petty self and party interests, could conduct a campaign of lies for months about the oppression and persecution of the Chinese in Kelantan in the past few months, they have become the greatest enemies of the Vision 2020 in showing the worst examples of an immoral and unethical leadership to the young generation of Malaysians.
After the MCA and Gerakan’s ‘all-out war’ against the DAP has turned into an ‘all-out rout’, the DAP is now in ‘hot pursuit’ after MCA and Gerakan for their campaign of lies threatening Malaysia’s Vision 2020
If the MCA and Gerakan Ministers and leaders are not prepared to publicly apologise for their most disgraceful campaign of lies, making them the greatest enemies of Vision 2020, then I am giving the MCA and Gerakan Ministers public and advance notice that they will have to justify and defend their actions when Parliament meets in April.
I will like to see how the MCA and Gerakan Ministers and leaders can justify their campaign of lies in Parliament, especially from the viewpoint of Vision 2020!
In October last, year, the MCA’s launched an ‘all-out war’ against the DAP, aided and abetted by the Gerakan. This ‘all-out war’ against the DAP has now degenerated into an ‘all-out rout’ following the visit of the DAP delegation to Kelantan which has ascertained the lies spread by the MCA and Gerakan about the ‘oppression’ and ‘persecution’ of the Chinese in Kelantan.
The MCA and Gerakan’s ‘all-out war’ against the DAP has now entered into a new phase – that of ‘hot pursuit’ by the DAP against the MCA and Gerakan for its campaign of lies which also threaten the Vision 2020 for Malaysia proclaimed by Dr. Mahathir.