By Parliament Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary –General and MP for Tanjung , Lim Kit Siang , in Petaling Jaya on Tuesday , 11 January 1994;
The Sabah State General Elections should be a State referendum on the proposal Sabah constituency redelineation proposals
DAP central Executive committee will leave it ti Sabah DAP to decide whether to contest in the sabah state general elections and if so , the scale and other details of the contest.
There is no doubt that there is an important and irreplaceable role for the Sabah DAP to play In Sabah state politics , including in the Sabah State Assembly , as a DAP Assemblymen in the Sabah would be able to play a dual role which would be unique in the state and which could be played by no other political party:
Firstly , to uphold Sabahan interest and support PBS Government in securing a just and equitable Federal-State relationship , ensuring a fair deal from the federal Government in terms of development allocations and resolving long-standing problems like the biggest presence of illegal immigrants in any state in Malaysia ; and
Secondly , to uphold the interests of Sabahans to monitor and expose deviations , abuses of power and malprectices by the PBS Government , for the interests of certain PBS leaders is not necessarily the interests of the people of Sabah.
I agree with the Sabah Chief Miinister , Datuk Joseph Parin Kitingan , that one of the main issues in the coming Sabah state general elections will be the changes to the electoral boundaries proposed by the Election Commission , which would cause irreparable damage to the socio-political, cultural and religious landscape of Sabah and threaten ethnic and nationl nity , as these changes have no underlying administrative and socioeconomic basis.
The coming Sabah State general elections should be used as a referendum by the people of Sabah on the proposed redelineation of electoral constituencies by the Election Commission , and let every political party contesting in the general elections declare their stand of support or opposition to the Election Commission ‘s proposal on constituency redelineation.
The Election Commission should defer all work on its current electoral constituency review exercise pending the outcome of the sabah state general elections.
If the overwhelming majority of the Sabah voters support political parties and candidates which oppose the proposed constituency changes , the Election Commission should respect and accept these views by incorporating them into new proposals for parliamentary and state constituency redelineation for sabah State.
Athough I believe that these is a crucial and irreplaceable role for the Sabah DAP in Sabah state politics and in the Sabah state assembly , the Sabah DAP will have to take the policy decision whether to contest in view of the failure of the DAP to date to make a breakthrough into the Sabah State Assembly I previous Sabah State general elections