Speech (Part 2) by Parliament Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, at the inaugurai meeting of the newly-elected DAP Federal Territory State Committee held at DAP FT Headquaters on Wednesday, 11th August 1993 at 8 p.m.
Although MCA President, Dtauk Ling Liong Sik claimed last week what a recent survey showed that 86 per cent of the people supported the Barisan Nasional, he has no confidence in such a survey.
This is best illustrated by his response to my challenge to him to return to Penang and contest in Tanjong constituency, which he should have no hesitation in doing if the survey is right.
Instead, Liong Sik reached with the ridiculous tale of a tiger and a crocodile, trying to present himself as a tiger.
MCA Deputy President, Datuk Lee Kim Sai is most qualified is telling who is the tiger and who is the crocodile in MCA. However, Kim Sai has been reduced to the position of a ‘tiger on the doldrums who could even be bullied by a cur’, and in this piteous state, even if he sees a crocodile, he would not dare to say that it is a crocodile but has no choice but to say that it is a tiger.
Liong Sik must have thought that now that there is a vacuum in MCA for a tiger, he can claim the role. But Liong Sik should know that he could best be a ‘paper tiger’ which dared not attend the ‘Lim Kit Siang – Ling Liong Sik mutual questioning session’ in Malacca on July 10 when I accepted his challenge to announce details of the DAP Save-Bukit China One-Person One-Dollar Fund within a week.
However, what is even more ridiculous about Liong Sik’s ‘tiger and crocodile’ tale is his challenge to me to contest in a constituency where there are at least 90 per cent Malay voters.
First time a MCA President has challenged the DAP to contest in a constituency with at least 90 per cent Malay electorate
This is the first time the President of MCA, which claims to be the sole representative of the five million Malaysian Chinese and the third largest Chinese political party in the world, has challenged a DAP leader to contest in a constituency with at least 90 per cent Malay voters.
What does such a challenge show about Liong Sik and the MCA leaders? There is only one answer: they are so afraid of facing the Chinese voters whom they claim to represent they are prepared to undermine the political position and power of the Chinese in Malaysia.
This in fact is the entire rationale behind the recent suggestion by certain MCA, leaders that Kuala Lumpur should be turned into ‘Group Constituency’ with the abolition of single-MP constituencies.
Under the MCA proposal of ‘Group Constituencies’, election for the proposed ten parliamentary constituencies for Kuala Lumpur under the constituency redelineation review will not be by way of the single-constituency election for their respective MPs, but by the election of a group of ten MPs to represent the whole of Kuala Lumpur.
The reason behind this MCA proposal is very simple. MCA knows that it has no chance of getting MP elected in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, and hopes that if the system of Group Constituencies is introduced in Kuala Lumpur, MCA may have a chance to get MPs elected not on their own merits but by hanging onto the coat-tails of UMNO.
The ‘cow-dung’ politics practised by MCA under the leadership of Liong Sik is not only a joke, but a threat to the rights and interests of the Malaysian Chinese
It is tragic that after 44 years of claiming to represent the Malaysian Chinese, the MCA has totally lost legitimacy in representing the Malaysian Chinese that they are prepared to undermine Chinese political position and power just to get a few MCA MPs elected into Parliament.
The question that would be asked next is – if these MCA MPs are elelcted into Parliament, not on the strength of the support among the Chinese electorate, but because of hanging on to the coat – tails of UMNO, who will these MCA MPs represent – the Chinese electorate of UMNO?
The MCA’s claim that such Group Constituencies will promote greater multi-racialism is destroyed when the MCA in only interested in diluting the political position and power of the Malaysian Chinese in Kuala Lumpur, but dare not make a similar suggestion to dilute the political position and power of the Malays in other parts of the country.
The MCA leadership has become the greatest threat to the political position and power of the Malaysian Chinese. This is why the MCA is not interested in urging the Malaysian Chinese to register as voters, although there are only two weeks left for the final chance to register as to be able to vote in the next general elections expected to be held next year.
It is most ludicrous that although MCA claims to be the only party to represent the Malaysian Chinese, they would prefer as few Chinese as possible to come forward to register as voters, just as they want diminish the political influence and power of the Chinese voters as reflected in their proposal for Group Constituencies in Kuala Lumpur.
This is the best example that the ‘cow-dung’ politics being practised by the MCA under the leadership of Liong Sik is not just a joke, but positively a threat to the rights and interests of the Malaysian people in general and the Malaysian Chinese in particular.
DAP to lodge objections against the unfair and undemocratic constituency redelineation proposal by the Election Commission on the various states
It is most ridiculous that the MCA should be making a proposal for “Group Constituencies” for Kuala Lumpur when the Election Commission has proposed the redelineation of the ten parliamentary constituencies in Kuala Lumpur soley with one principle in mind: to strengthen the four DAP parliamentary constituencies so that UMNO can win at least half the parliamentary seats in the Federal Territory.
As a result, the Election Commission had violated the fundamental principle of ‘one-man, one vote’.
The ten Federal Territory Parliamentary constituencies proposed under the constituency redelineation exercise are:
Kepong 54,128
Batu 55,535
Wangsa Maju 56,212
Segambut 45,030
Titiwangsa 51,339
Bukit Bintang 57,846
Lembah Pantai 47,550
Seputeh 60,400
Cheras 59,629
Bandar Tun Razak 44,012
Out of these 10 constituencies, four constituencies will have over 75 per cent Chinese-majority electorate, namely Bukit Bintang 77.78% ; Cheras 83.09% ; Seputeh 89.3% and Kepong 92.5% ; and five constituencies with more than 45 per cent Malay electorate, namely Batu 47% ; Bandar Tun Razak 51.3% ; Lembah Pantai 53% ; Wangsa Maju 57.1% ; Titiwangsa 59.4%
Under the proposed constituency redelineation proposals, there will be a 37.2 weightage between Bandar Tun Razak with the lowest electorate at 44,012 with Seputeh with the highest electorate at 60,400.
This is great disparity for the Federal Territory. In the first general elections after the previous electoral redelineation in 1986, the disparity in the weightage between constituencies with the highest and lowest electorate in Kuala Lumpur was only 20 per cent.
There is no reason why this disparity could not be maintained or reduced to per cent – in view of the fact that Kuala Lumpur is a very compact city area.
Going by the total electorate of 531,581 voters for the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, there should be 12 Parliamentary seats and not ten proposed by the Election Commission.
DAP to lodge objections against the unfair and undemocratic constituency redelineation proposal by the Election Commission, in particular in violating the democratic principle of ‘one-man one-vote’ in the various states.
All DAP State Committees and branches who have not lodged their objections through the petition of one hundred voters should do so immediately, as there are only eleven days to file such objections, as the deadline in August 22, 1993.