Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, at the first DAP Sabah general elections ceramah held at Palace Hotel, Kota Kinabalu on Nomination Day, Wednesday, July 4, 1990 at 9pm
DAP defines its dual role in Sabah politics: Nationally, to back and firm up the PBS Government against Barisan Nasional Federal Government; and in the State, to defend and promote the rights and interests of Sabahans
DAP has fielded seven candidates for the Sabah State general elections to play a stabilising and positive role in Sabah politics.
DAP has a dual role in Sabah politics. Nationally, the DAP will back and firm up the PBS Government in defence of the constitutional rights of the people of Sabah against the heavy-handed, insensitive and downright unjust Barisan Nasional Federal Government. Our second role in the state of Sabah is to protect and promote the rights and interests of the people of Sabah under a PBS Government.
The DAP had right from the beginning tried to play both these roles, but we have found that unless the DAP is represented in the Sabah State Assembly, both these roles could not be discharged effectively.
The DAP’s role in the early years of the PBS Government in 1985 and 1986 to stablise politics and government in Sabah is an open record, and is known by all Sabahans, including the PBS leaders.
During the 1986 riots, arson and bombings in Sabah, I came over to Kota Kinabalu myself in order to force the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, to pay a personal visit and to restore law and order in the State.
It was precisely because the DAP wanted to shore up the PBS Government against the heavy-handed, insensitive and downright unjust treatment of the Barisan Nasional Federal Government that the DAP stayed out of the 1986 Sabah State general elections.
The DAP wanted the people of Sabah to have the opportunity in the 1986 Sabah state general elections to return a clear verdict that they did not want the Barisan Nasional Federal Government to interfere in Sabah state politics, and that Sabahans have the right to decide the political direction of their choice.
PBS Government had to be reminded of its pledges and commitments
In the past four years, the DAP found that PBS had to be reminded of its pledges and commitments to the people of Sabah.
For instance, in the PBS election manifesto released by the PBS President, Datuk Seri Joseph Pairin Kitingan, yesterday, the PBS called for the return of Labuan to Sabah and for a review of the Internal Security Act.
In the past few years, the DAP was the sole voice in Parliament in demanding for the return of Labuan to Sabah. In fact, I spoke about it in Parliament only last month – and this had clearly prodded the PBS to include it in its election manifesto.
The PBS had also forgotten its pledges on democracy and human rights in the past few years, to the extent that the PBS President could personally express support for Operation Lalang mass arrests of 106 Opposition leaders and government critics under the Internal Security Act in October 1987, as well as to support amendments to the Internal Security Act to remove the right of the habeas corpus of ISA detainees.
Even in the case of the ISA detention of three Sabahans, Benedict Topin, Damit Undikai and Albinus Yudah, the DAP had to set the pace inside and outside Parliament for the PBS to follow. Outside Parliament, Karpal Singh, Fung Ket Wing and I held a press conference with the families of the detainees to call national attention to the three detentions, and inside Parliament, I spoke at least three times against their detention and demanded for their immediate release, while the DAP Sandakan MP Fung Ket Wing introduced an urgent motion to discuss the three detentions as a matter of definite public importance.
PBS forgotten about the illegal immigrants issue
The PBS manifesto called for the deportation of all illegal immigrants, but only a year ago, the PBS Government seemed to have forgotten this problem altogether, until I visited Sabah last October and spoke about it during my visits to Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, Tawau and Semporna as one of the most serious problems in the State and having got very much worse since the PBS Government came to power.
At that time, I was attacked by PBS leaders for raising the alarm about the problem of the illegal Filipino and Indonesian immigrants; but soon after that, realising that the Sabah state general elections is not far off, the PBS Government began to take increasingly stronger positions on the issue.
From these examples, it is clear that the PBS Government needed not only backing up, but firming up, to stand up for the rights of the people of Sabah in its relationship with the Barisan Nasional Federal Government on matters having a Federal dimension, like Labuan, Internal Security Act, the illegal Filipino and Indonesian immigrants, and others.
If in the 1986 Sabah state general elections, there had been DAP Assemblymen in Sabah, then the DAP Assemblymen would have raised these issues like Labuan, ISA, illegal immigrants, to remind the PBS Government at every Assembly meeting of its responsibilities, commitments and pledges – and not to wake up to them only because general elections were around the corner.
This is therefore the powerful reason why the DAP would be able to play a more effective role to back and firm up the PBS Government against the heavy-handed, insensitive and downright unjust policies and treatment of the Barisan Nasional Federal Government vis-a-vis Sabah.
If there had been DAP Assemblymen in the Sabah State Assembly, the illegal immigrants problem, for one, would not have got worse since the PBS Government came to power – to the extent that the PBS Government itself claimed that there are 700,000 illegal immigrants, or one out of every two persons in Sabah is an illegal immigrant!
On Federal-State problems, the DAP will stand by the PBS Government because the people of Sabah had been ignored, neglected and discriminated against for too long.
This is why I view with considerable misgivings the big splash in the newspapers and over TV news last night about the summons issued by the Anti-Corruption Agency against Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, Sabah Foundation director, for failing to declare his and his wife’s assets worth $45 million kept in the name of four companies in Hongkong and Shanghai Bank in Hong Kong.
The first reservation is about the timing, why the summons was issued on the eve of Nomination Day of the Sabah state general elections. The second reservation which must naturally come to the minds of Sabahans is why the ACA had never asked the Chief Minister and Ministers of previous State Governments to declare and account for their assets.
It is still not too late for the ACA to do so, as one of the candidates in the Api-Api constituency is Datuk Lim Guan Sing who was ‘high and mighty’ Minister in the Harris Salleh government, and the ACA should ask Lim Guan Sing to declare his assets and explain their sources of origin. This applies to Harris Salleh as well!
DAP’s Programme for Sabah
On the legitimate constitutional and fundamental rights of Sabahans, the DAP’s position is clear and unambiguous. The DAP, for instance, calls for the
* Raising of the oil and gas royalty for the State Government from 5 per cent to at least 10 per cent;
* Establishment of a full and complete university in Sabah;
* Construction of a Pan-Borneo Highway linking Sabah and Sarawak in the next five to ten years;
* A second airline for Sabah and Sarawak unless there is a complete overhaul of MAS to take into account the special transportation needs of the two states;
* Speed-up development of all sectors in Sabah;
* Eradication of poverty in Sabah;
* Special attention and respect to be given to the unique political, social and historical background of Sabah when formulating national policies.
In the first role of the DAP in Sabah politics, therefore, the DAP will back and firm up the PBS Government in the defence of the constitutional rights of the Sabahans in all dealings with the Federal Government.
DAP believes that the PBS should have no difficulty in forming the next State Government. PBS leaders have openly predicted that they will win with very comfortable majorities – of over 30 State Assembly seats.
There is talk that Sabah has a nine-year cycle of State Governments. Tun Mustapha’s USNO ruled from 1967 to 1976 before being toppled by Berjaya which, under Harris Salleh also ruled for nine years from 1976 – 1985 before being toppled by PBS. If there is any truth in this theory of nine-year cycle of Sabah State Governments, PBS need not fear about losing power in this general elections, for they can be safe for at least until 1994!
One PBS Assistant Minister had said that the PBS must have a huge majority in the State Assembly to ensure that there would be no repetition of the grab for power as happened in 1985. DAP wants to make a policy statement tonight that if there is such an attempt at another grab for power, all the DAP Assemblymen if elected will give their full backing to the PBS Government to again stabilise it for the second time. I do not think, however, that such a repetition for a grab for power is likely, especially after the constitutional amendment introduced by the PBS Government before dissolution.
Insurance that PBS Government does not repeat the mistakes of previous Berjaya and USNO Governments
The second role for the DAP in Sabah politics is to represent and promote the rights and interests of the people of Sabah under a PBS Government. The PBS Chief Minister will agree that after five years of PBS rule, there had been a lot of disenchantment and unhappiness among the people about the government record as well as the performance of individual Ministers, Deputy Ministers and Assemblymen.
DAP’s participation in the general elections will give the people a choice to elect the DAP candidates as Assemblymen, to look after the rights and interests of the people concerning State-government or local-government issues, without undermining the position of the PBS Government to stand up to the Federal Government (as DAP will give unstinting support to the PBS Government in this area).
A vote for the DAP in the Sabah state general elections, therefore, is a vote for strengthening PBS Government in its dealings with the Federal Government; while it is also a vote for effective watchdogs for the people in the Sabah State Assembly to ensure that the PBS Government does not break its promise to serve the best interests of all Sabahans.
It is in effect an insurance to ensure that the PBS Government does not go the way of Berjaya and USNO Governments in the past. The PBS Government and the people of Sabah can only benefit from having DAP representatives in the Sabah State Assembly.