Speech by DAP Organising Secretary, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, at the first DAP Segamat Utara by-election rally held at the Segamat town padang on Wednesday, 25th September 1968 at 8 p.m.
The Segamat Utara Parliamentary by-election is important not only to Segamat, but to the entire nation.
If the Segamat voters solidly vote for the DAP and reject the Alliance, they will give a fillip to the rising national reaction against the failures and follies of 13 years of Alliance rule, and ensure that in the next general elections, a strong team of Opposition Parliamentarians will be elected to check the financial excesses and abuse of power of the Alliance government.
Segamat has a choice, of either voting the DAP and enter the pages of history as a constituency which led the way for a Malaysian Malaysia, where social justice and equality are meaningful terms, or support the Alliance and endorse 13 years of Alliance misrule.
We therefore call on the people of Segamat to reject the Alliance on polling day on October 19, and take the lead in engineering political change and social progress in Malaysia.
The Alliance, after 13 youths of rule, has become synonymous with inefficiency, incompetence, extravagance, waste, corruption and communalism.
The Alliance has made politics, the most honourable public calling and service, dirty and cheap because Alliance politicians are famous for serving themselves instead of the nation and people.
There are countless examples of Alliance Parliamentarians and State Assemblymen who were men of ordinary means before election, but who swiftly acquired wealth, property, land, houses and Mercedes cars after election.
To the Alliance, politics is the stepping stone to wealth, position, title and power. To be a Parliamentarian is a passport to join the club of the new rich.
The DAP wants to abolish all this corruption of public life. To do this, the entire feudal-capitalist Alliance system must be changed.
The people of Segamat are faced with a grave decision. They must decide whether they will rise up to the occasion, and be forever remembered as pioneers who set in motion the forces for a Malaysian Malaysia, where there is no first-class or second-class citizens, or discrimination on grounds of race, religion, language, class or sex.
We believe there are enough Malaysians in Segamat who wish the winds of change to blow through Malaysia. We call on them to come out and help us in the by-election. Let the winds of change go out from Segamat to all parts of Malaysia.
We in the DAP have dedicated ourselves to bring about a more just and equal multi-racial Malaysian society. Every DAP leader and member must be dedicated to the service of his fellow-Malaysians, regardless of race or creed.
Our Segamat Utara candidate, Mr. Lee Ah Meng, a veteran trade unionist, is a good example. Mr. Lee had spent his last ten years in the service of his fellow-workers, giving his time, energy and spirit to the cause of Malaysians workers.
Service before self, public interest above self-interest – this is the DAP motto. We challenge the Alliance to declare that this is their motto, and prove it with deeds.
Audited on 2021-04-28.