Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjong, Lim Kit Siang, at the Perak DAP State Dinner held in Ipoh on Thursday April 14, 1994 at 8 pm
Perak will be the hardest hit if there is a nation-wide swing against the DAP in the next general elections and DAP may lose all Parliamentary seats in the Kinta Valley as in 1982 general elections
On Sunday, at the DAP National Leadership Conference in Kuala Lumpur, I warned that the DAP would not have any safe seat in the next general elections.
If there is a nation-wide swing against the DAP in the next general elections, Perak will be the hardest hit and DAP may lose all Parliamentary seats in the Kinta Valley as in the 1982 general elections.
In the 1982 general elections, the DAP was slashed to six parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia and huge majorities which DAP won in the 1978 general elections were turned into Barisan Nasional majorities instead.
There are those who believe for instance that the four DAP parliamentary seats in the Federal Territory are among the safest for the DAP. I do not agree. Although the DAP won three parliamentary constituencies in the Federal Territory with over 22,000- vote majorities – Kepong, Siputeh and Bukit Bintang – I also regard them as seats which could be lost by the DAP in the next general elections if there is a great swing against the DAP.
DAP’s greatest challenge is to prevent the DAP from suffering its greatest debacle in the next general elections
My purpose is not to demoralise DAP members and supporters about the bleak electoral prospects in the next general elections, but to warn against complacency or to think that in the worst scenario, their areas would be safe although other DAP areas might be lost.
But let us dare to face the prospects, however unpleasant and brutal. The DAP’s greatest challenge is to find a formula to prevent the DAP from suffering its greatest debacle in the next general elections even worse than the 1982 general elections.
We must be prepared for the worst but his does not mean we should hope for the best. But we must work very hard, both to prevent the worst from taking place as well as to ensure that the best is achieved in its stead.
One important key to forestall a national swing against the DAP is to remove the scales from the people’s eyes, as Malaysians seem to have been lulled into a national complacency believing that there are no more problems and issues in the country which need to concern them.
Is it true that there are not more problems and issues in Malaysia which should concern them?
The RM30 billion Bank Negara forex losses since 1992 is equivalent 12 Bumiputra Malaysia Finance scandals
I do not believe that the people are unconcerned about the RM30 billion Bank Negara foreign exchange losses scandal since 1992, which is 12 times the RM2.5 billion Bumiputra Malaysia Finance scandal.
I said in Parliament on Monday on my urgent motion on the colossal Bank Negara forex losses that with RM30 billion, the Government can declare a ‘tax holiday’ for all Malaysians where they do not have to pay individual income tax for eight years!
One reason why the Bank Negara forex losses scandal has not created as a great a national controversy as the BMF colossal losses could be incurred by Bank Negara.
Furthermore, Bank Negara had not been fully frank and truthful about its colossal losses, as in both its 1992 and 1993 Annual Reports, the losses had been understated.
For instance, in 1992, Bank Negara would not even admit that it had lost RM9.3 billion – claiming that these were mere ‘paper losses’. In 1993, Bank Negara would only admit to a RM5.7 billion forex losses.
In actual fact, Bank Negara’s forex losses could be as high as RM13 billion for 1992 and RM17 billion for 1993, bringing the total forex losses suffered by Bank Negara since 1992 to RM30 billion!
This was what I told Parliament on Monday and why the DAP has called for a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate into the actual extent of forex losses suffered by Bank Negara, how it could have happened two years in succession and what actually went wrong in the management of the Bank Negara’s reserves.