Speech by DAP Secretary-General, Member of Parliament for Petaling, Malacca State Assemblyman for Kubu, Lim Kit Siang, at a reception to thank election workers at Sungei Siput on Wednesday, 19th July 1978 at 8 p.m.
Call on State Executive Councillors to resign from their profession or business and devote full time to serve the state and people, and to avoid conflict of interests between public and private interests.
New State Governments have been formed in the various states, including Perak. The Perak Mentri Besar has been re-appointed and the Executive Council formed.
I call on all state executive councillors to resign or retire from their professions or business and devote full time to serve the State and people, and to avoid conflict of interests between public and private interests.
From Malaysia’s political experience, there has been considerable degree of corruption at state government levels, and we know of cases where State Executive Councillors made use of their political offices to alienate land or approve plans beneficial for their business or monetary gain.
This must stop. If there is to be a clean and honest State government, it is essential that State Executive Councillors should be put on full-time basis, like Ministers at the Federal level, so that there can be no conflict of interest between public and private interests.
The problem of the people are so many and complex that State Executive Councillors will have their hands full if they are sincere in wanting to help the people.
Disappointed by DAP Perak’s relatively poor performance
I am disappointed by the DAP Perak’s relatively poor performance. We should not have lost five Parliamentary seats in Perak , namely Sungei Siput, Kinta, Lumut, Teluk Anson and Taiping. Not should we have lost the Pangkor and Jalong State Assembly seats.
We should work even harder from now on to capture these seats in the nest general elections. Dr. Lim Keng Yaik won Jalong by the skin of his teeth, just managing to scrape through.
Last week, Dr. Lim Keng Yaik went to Sabah to help Berjaya candidates, concentrating his time in Sandakan, trying to discredit the DAP and myself especially. He thought he could go to Sandakan and bluff the people of Sabah. The DAP’s victory in Sandakan is a clear-out repudiation of Dr. Lim Keng Yaik and his irresponsible statements.
For instance, Dr. Lim Keng Yaik alleged that the DAP was so irresponsible that in 1974, the DAP opposed the establishment of diplomatic relations between Malaysia and the People’s Republic of China.
Dr. Lim Keng Yaik dared not way these things in Perak, because the people will immediately know he is a liar. But he went to Sandakan and uttered a lot of irresponsible lies, hoping that the people of Sandakan would be misled by him. But Dr. Lim Keng Yaik has underestimated the intelligence of the people of Sandakan.
I had challenged Dr. Lim Keng Yaik to prove that the DAP had in 1974 opposed the establishment of diplomatic ties between Malaysia and China, and that if he could prove , I would resign as MP and State Assemblyman and retire from politics. If Dr. Lim Keng Yaik cannot furnish any proof, then he should resign as MP which he got through from backdoor by being appointed Senator, and as Perak Assemblyman.
Dr. Lim Keng Yaik dared not reply to my challenge, which is to be expected. He is after all not very different from Lee San Choon.
Dr. Lim Keng Yaik and the Gerakan are a most curious lot. Dr. Lim started his political career by shouting that all Chinese must unite and was even behind the ‘Chinese Unity Movement’ of 1971. After he was expelled from MCA, and joined Gerakan, he and his colleagues took a 360 degree turn, and shouted that the MCA’s call on the Chinese to unite is harmful to Malaysia. But Dr. Lim Keng Yaik and his Gerakan colleagues fully supported and agreed with the UMNO’s call to the Malays to unite as Malays.
Can Dr. Lim Keng Yaik explain to the people why he is opposed to MCA calling on the Chinese to unite as Chinese, but support the UMNO calling on the Malays to unite as Malays?
Again, Dr. Lim Keng Yaik thinks that the people in West Malaysia are not as intelligent as he is, and he is greatly mistaken. It is politicians like Dr. Lim Keng Yaik who have no political principles, who can switch and turn, who are likely to bring the greatest harm to the interests of the people and the future of our children.
Finally, I wish to advice DAP candidates who had not won in their parliamentary or state seats not to waste time moping around, but to get down to the task of building up on the support we had won in the 1978 general elections. The DAP is not an elections party, but a party with long-term political responsibilities. This is why the DAP had won so handsomely throughout the country, and this is why other opposition mosquito parties, which sprout before elections are crushed.