Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, at the DAP Tanjong 3 Dinner held at Balik Pulau, Penang on Saturday, July 16, 1994 at 8 p.m.
DAP’s Tanjong 3 objective is to make Penang the ‘model state’ which acts as stimulus to bring about ‘Big Liberalisation’ of all aspects of nation-building policies in Malaysia
DAP’s declaration of its two-fold objective in its Tanjong 3 Battle to make the Penang the ‘engine-head’ in the movement for the ‘Big Liberalisation’ in Malaysia and to make Penang DAP State Government a model state government has struck fear and confusion among both national and Penang Gerakan leaders.
So far, the Gerakan Deputy President, Kerk Choo Ting and the Gerakan National Publicity Chief, Dr. Kang Chin Seng have come out with silly reactions to the DAP’s two-fold objective of its Tanjong 3 Battle.
Kang Chin Seng for instance quoted Penang Chief Minister, Dr. Koh Tsu Koon who recently said that Penang had always been a ‘Leader’ in Malaysia, giving as compared that Penang has a doctor for every 1,300 people as compared to the national ratio of a doctor for every 2,700 people.
Why didn’t Tsu Koon and Chin Seng mention the doctor population ratio for the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, which would be in the region of a doctor for every 600 people?
In any event, Penang had always beaten the other states (apart from Kuala Lumpur) in doctor-population ratio even before Gerakan ruled Penang in 1969 or even when Malaya attained Merdeka in 1957 – which shows that this factor has nothing whatsoever to do with Gerakan.
What the Gerakan leaders do not understand is DAP Tanjong 3’s objective to make Penang a model state to act as a stimulus to bring about ‘Big Liberalisation’ for all aspects o nation-building in Malaysia, so that every Malaysian will have an equal place under the Malaysian sun.
The Gerakan leaders seem to be confused as to whether to claim that the Barisan Nasional is already ‘very liberal’ as claimed by Kerk Choo Ting or adopt he term of ‘Little Liberalisation’.
I challenge the Gerakan leaders to make up their mind as to whether they admit that there is no ‘Big Liberalisation’ and claim that there is only ‘Little Liberalisation’.
In fact, a strong case could be made that there is even no ‘Little Liberalisation’ but only ‘Little Little Liberalisation’ plus ‘False Liberalisation’.
The DAP is being over-generous in being prepared to accept that there had been ‘Little Liberalisation’ in certain economic and educational fields in the past three years – but these are a far cry from the ‘Big Liberalisation’ that the DAP and the people want.