Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjong, Lim Kit Siang, at the DAP Johore State Committee meeting over the voters’ registration exercise held in Kluang, Johore on 22nd June 1994
DAP to seek electoral understanding with Gagasan Rakyat component parties with flexible arrangement to permit multi-cornered contests where it is unavoidable
DAP is working on the idea of the loosening of Gagasan Rakyat for the next general elections, where the form of co-operation among the Gagasan Rakyat component parties would be modelled on the Japanese experience last July when the Opposition parties toppled the Liberal Democratic Party from power after 38-year rule.
In the 1990 general elections, Gagasan Rakyat had a common election manifesto for all its component parties. DAP proposes that in the next general elections, the Gagasan Rakyat component parties not only fight on their own respective party symbols, but also have their own election manifestos instead of having a common Gagasan Rakyat manifesto.
In fact, what the Gagasan Rakyat component parties should do in the next general elections is to seek an electoral understanding on the constituencies to be contested with a flexible arrangement to permit multi-cornered fights where it is unavoidable.
The voters’ registration exercise next month will be the second time since Merdeka where the Election Commission is conducting for only 21 days instead of the usual 42 days.
The first time the Election Commission conducted the 21-day voters’ registration exercise was in 1990, and it was directly connected to UMNO’s preparations for the 1990 general elections.
Has the 21-day Voters’ Registration Exercise this year any connection with UMNO’s preparations for the next general elections?
UMNO had for the past few months been carrying out an intensive publicity campaign to mobilise UMNO members and supporters to register as voters and its target is to get 400,000 of their member’s and supporters who have not registered as voters to get onto the electoral roll next month.
If these 400,000 new voters from the ranks of UMNO members or supporters are to cast their vote in the next general elections, then general elections would have to wait until early next year as the Election Commission cannot produce the new electoral rolls incorporating their names in the next few months.
However, we cannot rule out the possibility of general elections being held in the next few months, particularly in October.
For this reason, DAP throughout the country must work on both possibilities:
* General Elections, in the next few months;
* General Elections in early next year, which makes the voters’ registration exercise next1 month very crucial and critical in determining the outcome of the next general elections.
In Johore, I would urge the DAP branches in south Johore to concentrate in the two Parliamentary and four state assembly constituencies the DAP would contest in the next general elections, namely Senai and Johore Bahru Parliamentary constituencies and the Kulai, Scudai, Tanjong Petri and Stulang State Assembly constituencies.