Speech by DAP Organising Secretary and Parliamentary Candidate for Bandar Melaka, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, at the 10th DAP Public Rally at Wolferstan Road on 3rd May 1969 at 9p.m:
Last Tuesday, some officials of the University of Malaya Students’ Union held a mass rally in Malacca.
Those who attended the rally came away with one common thought: The student rally could well have been a Party Rakyat rally. The things that were said at the student rally were the same things which had been said at previous Party Rakyat rallies.
It is common knowledge that the Party Rakyat helped to organise the student rally. I also know that Inche Hasnul is trying to arrange another student rally in Malacca to help his election campaign.
This is not surprising. The Secretary-General of the Student’s Union, Syed Hamid Ali is known to me. He is the brother of Syed Husin Ali, who is the National Vice Chairman of Party Rakyat. Syed Hamid Ali is himself a member of Party Rakyat, and is in fact Party Rakyat’s chief recruiting officer in the University of Malaya.
Syed Hamid Ali is entitled to his views, and I personally welcome university students taking a more keen interest in politics. But those who are affiliated and members of political parties should declare so openly, and not try to deceive the public by saying and claiming that they are ‘non-party’ men and are taking an ‘independent’ stand.
At the student rally, every political party, except the Party Rakyat, was attacked. The reason for this again is very plain.
In the last one week, Inche Hasnul bin Hadi has been concentrating his attack on the DAP and myself personally.
Everybody knows that in the Bandar Melaka Parliamentary constituency, the Party Rakyat does not stand even a ghost of a chance. The battle is between the DAP and the Alliance.
Those who want the Alliance to be defeated must all unite their votes for the Rocket, for a vote for the Party Rakyat will be a vote for the Alliance – in that it will help the Alliance to win by reducing the Rocket votes.
Inche Hasnul knows that he does not stand a chance at all to win in Bandar Melaka. This is also why his election workers have told the voters that if they don’t want to vote for the Party Rakyat, then they should vote for the Alliance – but under no circumstances should they vote for the Rocket.
This is because the Party Rakyat and the Alliance share the same education policy, to destroy all Chinese, Tamil and English schools. Both the Party Rakyat and Alliance reject the DAP’s concept of a Malaysian Malaysia, where all races, languages and cultures share the same status and freedom.
The Party Rakyat’s education policy is very clearly spelt out in its 1969 general elections manifesto, which called for “an education system with Malay as the main medium, use Malay as a medium for as many subjects as possible, abolish the teaching of English as a subject at primary level, encourage the learning of languages of the people, provide other international and scientific languages like French, Russian, German and Chinese as subjects at secondary level.”
In other words, to the Party Rakyat, the Chinese language ranks well below the Russian, French and German languages!
The Party Rakyat’s greatest leader was Sukarno of Indonesia. This was why Inche Hasnul and his colleagues in the Party Rakyat fully supported President Sukarno in his Indonesian Confrontation campaign, and had only praise and admiration for Sukarno’s anti-Chinese persecutions.
This may also explain why when 11 youths were condemned to hang at the gallows last June, Inche Hasnul and the Party Rakyat did not say a single word or do a single thing to try to save their lives. Is it because the Party Rakyat regards itself as a Malay Party, and that it regards the first 11 condemned youths as Chinese youths – who deserve to die and hang at the gallows?
In education, culture and language, the Party Rakyat is no different from the alliance. It wants a Malay or Indonesian Malaysia and opposes the Chinese, Tamil and English languages to be given official status and recognition.
The biggest issue in the 1969 general elections is whether Malaysia is to be a Malaysian Malaysia or Malay Malaysia, whether Malaysia is to have two classes of citizens, the first-class bumiputras and the second-class non-bumiputras. On these basic and fundamental issues, the Party Rakyat has nothing to say. In fact, the Party Rakyat is trying to confuse the public mind, by shifting public attention on these basic and fundamental issues, which concern the basic language, educational, political and cultural rights of every Malaysia. Is there a conspiracy between the Party Rakyat and the Alliance to try to confuse the public mind?