by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Wednesday, February 23, 1994:
DAP Central Working Committee to meet over the issues of money politics, RTM and TV3 abuses and phantom voters in the Sabah state general elections
The DAP Central Working Committee will meet over the issues of money politics, RTM and TV3 abuses and phantom voters in the Sabah state general elections, which enabled the Barisan Nasional to win 23 out of the 48 seats in the state.
We believe that encouraged by the success of their money politics, RTM and TV3 abuses and other electoral abuses like phantom voters in Sabah, the Barisan Nasional would be deploying these tactics in the forthcoming national general elections.
We can already see the Barisan Nasional putting some of these tactics into action, in particular in the very blatant and unabashed manner in which TV and Radio would be used hence forth to be propaganda instruments of the various Barisan Nasional component parties.
This was why the ETM3 Chinese news at 7 p.m. yesterday had as its first headline item.the MCA announcement to recruit 100,000 new MCA members – which is not only an old item, but nothing newsworthy whatsoever.
This is only the beginning, and for the next few months until the national general elections, RTM TV2 Chinese news telecast is going to be a MCA television channel!
DAP calls for the ‘democratisation’ of all laws and measures in the country, including the ‘demo-cratisation’ of the conduct of general elections campaign
In questioning the validity of the appointment of the six nominated Assemblymen by the Sabah Chief Minister, Datuk Joseph Pairin Kitingan, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and other Barisan Nasional leaders claim to be champions of democracy.
If this is the case, then it is time that the Barisan Nasional Government sit down with the Opposition parties to review and democratise all laws and measures in the country, including the conduct of general elections campaign.
The Barisan Nasional should reject money politics, RTM and TV3 abuses and other forms of electoral abuses, like phantom voters, as undemocratic and unacceptable in the next general elections and join Opposition parties to outlaw them as undemocratic practices.