Statement by DAP Secretary-General and Parliamentary Candidate for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, to reporters on his arrival in Kuala Lumpur on 22nd August after attending the giant DAP public in Ipoh last night
1. Record-breaking crowd at Ipoh DAP Public Rally
I have just returned from Ipoh where I attended the DAP Public Rally in both in Ipoh and Batu Gajah. The turn-out at the Ipoh DAP Public Rally at the Children’s Playground is the biggest in the history of Perak, and is easily in the region of 25,000. The crowds of Tun Razak, which have invariably be stated to be 20,000 or 30,000 are very small by comparison by last night’s DAP rally turn-out.
It is clear that in Perak, and especially in Ipoh and Menglembu, the DAP is set to make a big sweep. The PPP and Dato S.P. Seenivasagam will disappear from the political scene, as they should, because they have deviated and betrayed their political principles and the trust of the people.
The voter of Malaysia should use their sacred vote to teach these politicians who have betrayed the people a lesson by rejecting the on Saturday.
2. Shock by police refusal to allow public rallies tomorrow
I am shocked by the police refusal to allow public rallies to be held tomorrow night, as we in the DAP have planned a series of giant public rallies throughout the country.
The National Front knows that their rallies are poorly attended despite film shows and free transport, while DAP public rallies are packed with voters and the people who want to have an opportunity to hear the real issues and problems in the country, the majority of which are blacked out in the press, radio and television.
This ban on rallies tomorrow is the latest in a series of undemocratic and unfair measures to deny to the DAP fullest opportunity to explain issues to the people, like having a short, two-week campaign period, the shortening of public rallies to 10.30 p.m.; offering the DAP only 13 minutes of radio time while hogging Radio and Television Malaysia for National Front leaders; and now refusing public rallies to be held tomorrow night.
3. Lim Kit Siang calls on Malaysian voters to vote for all the 46 Parliamentary Candidates to deny two-thirds majority to the National Front
Polling is only two days away, and I call on Malaysian voters to vote solidly for the Rocket candidates to deny the National Front the two-thirds majority so that they cannot tear and amend the Constitution at will.
It is now obvious throughout the country that the 1974 General Election is a battle between DAP and the National Front. The Pekemas are more jokers, talking about waiting to form coalition government and not wanting to form coalition government in Penang, when they should be more worried about retaining the deposits of their Parliamentary and State assembly candidates, not only in Penang, but also in the other states where they have claimed they wanted to capture state power, like Perak, Selangor and Malacca.
It is unfortunate however that with polling only 48 hours away, out of sheer desperation about their chances, many Parliamentary candidates are resorting to untruths and falsehoods and even character assassination to try to mislead the voters.
For instance, Veerappen is claiming that the DAP is calling on the people to vote for the DAP or the National Front. This is too ridiculous. The DAP states that the general elections is a contest between the DAP and the National Front, while Pekemas and other parties are just irrelevant, and only split votes and help National Front to win. The DAP is calling on all voters to vote for the DAP and not vote for the National Front.
Similarly, in Kuala Lumpur, Alex Lee, in desperation about his chances in Kuala Lumpur Bandar, is telling lies about me. I have fully explained to the people what happened when I met Tun Tan Siew Sin but Alex Lee is trying to distort the whole thing in the hope that on the eve of polling, the people can be confused.
Similarly with Yeoh Teck Chye, who made the fantastic allegation that the DAP is paying $100 to every Malay speaker at our rallies. The DAP is a poor party, as people can see from the fact that we have financial difficulties even in getting out sufficient quantities of posters. Yeoh Teck Chye, who is going to come out last in the K.L, Bandar contest, probably thinks that the DAP operates like the Pekemas, which use money liberally for workers and speakers.
The DAP had proved that we are a multi-racial party, with Parliamentary and State Candidates throughout the country. What is more, our Malay candidates will get elected, while the Pekemas candidates, regardless of their racial origin, will most of them lose their deposits.
The people must watch out for more lies and untruths in the next 48 hours and not to allow themselves to be misled. The National Front and other parties will try tricks like for instance alleging that the DAP is opposed to the establishment of diplomatic relations between Malaysia and China, which a travesty of the truth. Even Radio and Television Malaysia broadcast this falsehood – all to help the National Front to mislead the voters.
4. Call on the Malaysian voters not to split votes
Finally, I call on the Malaysian voters not allow their votes to split, if they want to defeat the National Front candidates to show to Tun Razak that although he is going to continue as Malaysian Prime Minister and the National Front to form the Malaysia government, the people want a re-appraisal and change in the policies of the government so that economically, the poor and the have-nots will not continue to be ignored and neglected while the rich become richer; so that politically, the citizens can enjoy full political rights, like having the right to vote instead of finding that their names have been unreasonably and undemocratically removed from the electoral register, that they would have freedom of speech and expression and free arbitrary arrest under the Internal Security Act; educationally, there is an end to the gross wastage of manpower where every year 10,000 to 20,000 above-average students fail MCE because of failure in Bahasa Malaysia, and where there is mass failures among Malay students in science and mathematics.
A vote that is split for other opposition candidates can only help the National Front to win ,for no other candidate apart from the DAP candidate can win in the electoral contest against the National Front.