Speech by DAP Secretary-General, MP for Tanjung and Assemblyman for Padang Kota, Lim Kit Siang, at the Penang DAP Ceramah to welcome into DAP the 27 Chinese educationists and civil rights activists held at Penang Chinese Town Hall on Friday, 7th September 1990 at 8 p.m.
For the nation’s sake, Dr. Mahathir should call off the Barisan Nasional campaign of lies against the Opposition and fight the general elections in a clean and honest contest
Recently, under the influence of the UMNO Secretary-General and Information Minister, Datuk Rahmat Mohamed, the Barisan Nasional Government is very fond of getting into the Guinness Book of Records and doing things nobody or no other country had ever done before.
This is why the Barisan Nasional Government spent $9 million to build a ‘snow garden’ in Selangor for visitors to see the four seasons – spring, summer, autumn and winter – in the tropics as no other country or government had been so misguided as to waste public funds in this fashion.
When the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, visited Malacca early this week as part of his pre-election tour, he was hailed as ‘liberator of the Third World’ in full-page advertisement in the English-language newspaper. This is another Guinness Book Record as no one has yet proclaimed himself as ‘Liberator of the Third World’!
Recently, the Barisan Nasional had also been creating political history in another manner. Never before in Malaysian history had the government leaders been telling so many lies about the Opposition, that if these lies are collected together, it would be quite a thick volume!
What is most shocking is that these lies are not told by state or branch leaders but by the highest government and political leaders, including the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir, the Deputy Prime Minister, Ghafar Baba, the Education Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, and all the other leaders of the other Barisan Nasional component parties, like Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik, Datuk Dr. Lim Keng Yaik and Datuk Samy Vellu.
In fact, this campaign of lies has extended its tentacles to rope in more and more people, such as the Penang Chief Minister, Dr. Lim Chong Eu, and the latest recruit is his successor-designate, the Gerakan MP for Nibong Tebal, Dr. Goh Cheng Taik who wrote a sickeningly Jeceitful newspaper column recently alleging that the DAP supports PAS in wanting to establish an Islamic State!
Barisan Nasional leaders should ask themselves whether it is worth winning the general elections if they have to become liars, cheats and even blackmails?
Dr. Mahathir and Anwar Ibrahim often talk about moral and spiritual values, and I want to remind them that telling blatant lies violete the most basic moral and spiritual values.
Dr. Mahathir is chairing a UMNO Supreme Council meeting tomorrow where the general elections is top on the agenda. I urge him for the nation’s sake to promote a generation grounded in strong moral and spiritual values, and call off the Barisan Nasional campaign of lies and to fight the general elections in a clean and honest manner.
DAP to expose the campaign and culture of lies of the Barisan Nasional
However, I would not write to the Prime Minister to protest against his Malacca speech, which is in such taste, as it reflected on him rather him than me.
Dr. Mahathir’s worry and obsession about the next general elections could also be found from more and more lies that Dr. Mahathir and the other Barisan Nasional leaders are telling every day in their attacks on the DAP and other Opposition parties.
Dr. Mahathir and the other Barisan Nasional leaders have reduced their general elections campaign to a simple campaign of lies, lies and more lies!
The Barisan Nasional has become so enveloped by this ‘culture of lies’ that more and more leaders have joined Dr. Mahathir, Ghafar Baba, Anwar Ibrahim, Ling Liong Sik, Lim Keng Yaik and Samy Vellu to tell lies. The latest recruits to this Barisan Nasional one of his designated successors, Dr. Goh Cheng Teik in his column in Nanyang Siang Pao today.
The DAP will be exposing all these lies of the Barisan Nasional leaders, and explain why there is now a culture of lies in the Barisan Nasional.