by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Wednesday, February 15, 1995:
DAP proposes a Political Code of Ethics binding on all political parties in the next general elections to wipe out the politics and culture of lies
I had said in Parliament that the 1990 general elections was the dirtiest general elections in Malaysian history, in terms of the massive scale of the politics of lies, the politics of money and the politics of fear in the last general elections.
From the MCA lies on the Tanah Putih land issue, the next general elections promises to be even dirtier than the 1990 general elections.
If the MCA national leadership can tell a dozen lies against the DAP on one Tanah Putih land issue, then it will be capable of telling hundreds of lies against the DAP in the coining general elections.
This does not augur well for Malaysians who hope that the next general elections can be a ‘free, fair and clean’ general elections, for it is impossible to have free, fair and clean general election when the country, the mass media and the people are flooded with lies during the election campaign period.
When the MCA national leadership is prepared even to sacrifice the rights and interests of the Tanah Putih farmers, 98 per cent of whom are MCA members, and just to make use of them as political pawns to tell lies about the DAP, then it is a measure as to what extremes the MCA leadership is prepared to go to score political points, in utter disregard of what is right and wrong, true and false.
The Tanah Putih land issue has raised a very fundamental question about the MCA national leadership – If the MCA national leaders cannot help and defend the rights and interests of its MCA members who comprise 98 per cent of the farmers in Tanah Putih, how can the MCA leaders fight for the rights of the Chinese community or the Malaysian people?
This is why in almost every instance where MCA members had become the victims of social injustice, the MCA leadership would abandon the MCA members and it is invariably the DAP who had to come forward to defend the rights and interests of these MCA members.
The best examples are the various Land Acquisition Act abuses and injustices in the various states in the country, whether in the case of Paya Mengkuang or Kuala Sungai Barn in Malacca, the Seremban II land acquisition in Negri Sernbilan, the Second Johore-Singapore Crossing and Second JB township in Gelang Patah and Tanjong Kupang, the Kuala Lumpur International Airport land acquisition in Sepang or the Bandar Aman Jaya case in Sungai Petani.
MCA is a very strange party – it wants the DAP to resolve the problems faced by MCA members while depending on UMNO leaders to win Chinese voter support
The MCA is a very strange party. It wants the DAP to resolve the problems faced by the MCA members while in the next general elections, it will have to depend on UMNO leaders to get Chinese votes for MCA candidates.
As far as the DAP is concerned, we will have no hesitation in going to the help of MCA members to fight for their right to socio-economic justice, for we regard them first and foremost as Malaysian citizens and their MCA membership second.
But the DAP is not prepared to go to the help of the MCA members when the MCA leadership is unable to help them, and yet foe accused by the MCA leadership of betraying their rights and interests – as in the case of Tanah Putih MCA members and farmers.
I have proposed that the DAP and MCA stop political exchanges on the Tanah Putih land issue and that both parties co-operate to resolve the land problem of the Tanah Putih MCA members and farmers and I am still waiting a response from the MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik.
I have another proposal today – that the all political parties, including the MCA and Gerakan, promise to abide by a Political Code of Ethics in the coming general elections whereby no lies would be used against other political parties, and when such lies are pointed out, such falsehoods would not be repeated.
If all political parties are prepared to be bound by such a Political Code of Ethics, at least it will ensure that the politics and the culture of lies would not contaminate the next general elections.