by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Monday, July 25, 1994:
Why have the Chinese Tang Liang, Selangor Tang Liang, Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the Chinese Youth organizations and Chinese Guilds and Associations become so indifferent and kept so quiet about the voters’ registration exercise which is to end in six days’ time?
Why have the Chinese Tang Liang, Selangor Tang Liang, Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the Chinese Youth organizations and Chinese Guilds and Associations become so indifferent and kept so quiet about the voters’ registration exercise which is to end in six days’ time?
It has become the fashion for leaders of Chinese Tang Liang, Selangor Tang Liang, Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the Chinese Youth organizations and Chinese Guilds and Associations in their speeches to express concern about the shrinking Chinese population in Malaysia and making appeals to the Malaysian Chinese to produce more children to protect their political, economic, educational and citizenship rights in the country.
What is the use of the Malaysian Chinese producing more children when they are indifferent about their basic right as a citizen to exercise their vote in general elections – which tantamounts to abdicating their political rights as Malaysian citizens?
It is so use talking about quantity when quality is ignored altogether – and the most fundamental quality for a citizen in a country is to exercise his vote to help determine the nation-building policies of the land. How can such a basic citizenship duty be performed when one does nto even register as a voter?
Recently, the Malaysian Taiwan Graduate Alumi Association President declared that Malaysian Taiwan Graduates have decided to take an active part in politics to fight for their rights. But I have not read of the Malaysian Taiwan Graduates Alumni Association President urging all eligible Malaysian Chinese to register as a voter on the electoral roll so that they could cast their votes in the next general elections.
I am very disappointed at the indifferent at the indifferent of the Chinese Tang Liang, Selangor Tang Liang, Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Chinese Youth Organisations and Chinese Guilds and Associations to the current 21-day voters’ registration exercise.
They were not like this in the past
The indifference of the Chinese Tang Liang, Selangor Tang Liang, Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Chinese Youth Organisations and Chinese Guilds and Associations to the voters’ registration exercise seems to match the indifference of MCA and Gerakan to the voters’ registration exercise.
There are only two political parties in the country which have launched special campaigns to get all eligible voters who have reached 21 years to register as voters by before July 31 – UMNO and DAP.
UMNO however is only interested in its target of registering 400,000 new UMNO voters, ignoring another 500,000 eligible voters who have not registered on the electoral roll.
MCA and Gerakan are indifferent about the voters’ registration exercise because they want UMNO to succeed in its target of registering 400,000 new UMNO voters and are not interested in the registration of eligible Malaysian Chinese as voters, as they fear that the more Malaysian Chinese register as voters, the more voters the DAP will get in the next general elections.
This cannot be the reason for the indifference and conspicuous silence of the Chinese Tang Liang, Selangor Tang Liang, Chinese Tang Liang, Selangor Tang Liang, Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Chinese Youth Organisations and Chinese Guilds and Associations to the current voters’ registration exercise, who are supposed to be above party politics, as the registration of all eligible voters has nothing to do with party politics but represents fundamental political right of a Malaysian citizen.
I hope the Chinese Tang Liang, Selangor Tang Liang, Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Chinese Youth Organisations and Chinese Guilds and Associations can play their role in the last six days of the voters’ registration exercise – and better still, present a joint position to the Election Commission for the extension of the 21-day Voters’ Registration Exercise to 42 days and extend the deadline from July 31 as August 21.