Speech (Part 3) by Parliament Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, at the formation of the DAP Taman Merak, Simpang Empat protem committee in Simpang Empat on Friday, August 20, 1993 at 6 p.m.
Call on all Penangites to make full use of the last five days to register themselves as voters so that they could take part in the DAP’s ‘Be A Voter for Tanjong 3’ movement
I call on all Malaysians to make full use of the last five days to register themselves as voters so that they could vote in the next general elections to decide the future of the country. In Penang, those over 21 years should register to take par in the DAP’s ‘Be A Voter for Tanjong 3’ campaign.
Those who miss the opportunity to register themselves in the next five days will not be able to take part in any general elections until probably 1999.
The Bukit Mertajam Teck Hock Cheng temple land for forfeiture issue should be an eye-opener to everyone of the importance of having political power. There is no doubt that if the people do not have political power, the Penang State Government would not promise to return the Bukit Mertajam Teck Hock Cheng temple land which it had forfeited once the Penang DAP took up the issue.
Tsu Koon should ‘forfeit’ the RM37,435.30 quit rent arrears and fines and not ‘forfeit’ the 108-years-old temple land.
After the State Exco meeting on Wednesday, Tsu Koon made the remarkable statement that ‘the State Government ‘deliberately’ forfeited land of certain religious and civic organisations so that the land could be re-sold to the owners at the lowest nominal price so as to indirectly help them to legalise their land”.
If Tsu Koon wants to help in this way, he should have ‘forfeited’ the RM37,435.30 quit rent arrears and fines of Bukit Mertajam Teck Hock Cheng temple land and not ‘forfeited’ the land of the 108-years-old temple , because of its religious, cultural and historical significance.
The marvel about Tsu Koon’s explanation that the Bukit Mertajam temple land was “deliberately forfeited” to help it resolve its legal problem is that nobody seems to know about it, whether the Bukit Mertajam Teck Hock Cheng Temple management authorities, the District Office, the Political Secretary to the Chief Minister Goik Hick Lai or even Dr. Koh Tsu Koon himself – until the press conference after the State Exco meeting on Wednesday.