Category: Development

DAP’s Rural Drive

Extracts of speech by DAP Secretary-General, Mr Lim Kit Siang, at the inaugural meeting of the National DAP Rural Oganisation Sub-committee held at the DAP Headquarters in Petaling Jaya on Sunday, 8th August 1971 at 10am

DAP’s Rural Drive

The DAP is now embarked on the second phase of its party programme. This is the organization of the rural areas.

The task of organizing the party in the rural areas is any times more difficult than the organization of the urban areas. In the rural areas, we are going to encounter many obstacles, for instance, the use by UMNO of religion to buttress their political influence.

In the long run, however, the arguments of class and economics, of poverty and exploitation, must prevail over the misuse of religion for political ends. Continue reading DAP’s Rural Drive

Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill 1971

Speech by Sdr. Lim Kit Siang on the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill 1971 in the Dewan Rakyat on July 26, 1971.

When the Industrial Relations Bill was presented to the Dewan Ra’ayat in 1967, my party said that the Bill, when enacted into law, would bring bind the workers hand and foot.

The industrial Relations Act, 1967, is detrimental to the interest of the workers as it flagrantly flouts the rights of Malaysian workers, Workers, especially unorganised workers who comprise 90 per cent of the total work-force, and small and weak unions are left completely at the tender mercy of anti-union employers and a far from sympathetic Ministers of Labour. Continue reading Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill 1971

The Second Malaysia Plan 1970-1975

First of all, this House should note that we are not debating the Development Plan for the next five years, but for the next four-and-a-half years. Six months of this Five-year Second Malaysia Plan have already passed before this Plan comes before this House. This speaks most eloquently for the authoritarian nature of the present government, which professes democratic rule. What this House and co country think, feel and decide do not matter. The Alliance Government has decided, and this is that.

The Second Five-year Plan opens with this passage:

“National unity is the over-riding objective of the country…..This direction toward national unity and progress is fundamental to the New Economic Policy. The Second Malaysia Plan, based on this Policy, is designed to facilitate the achievement of the national objective”. Continue reading The Second Malaysia Plan 1970-1975

Call to government to release Second Malaysia Plan to MPs and to give them ample time to study the Plan before Parliamentary debate

Extracts of Closing speech by DAP Secretary-General, Lim Kit Siang, at the two-day DAP MPs’ seminar on Economic Development in Malaysia” held on Klang on 19th and 20th June 1971

Call to government to release Second Malaysia Plan to MPs and to give them ample time to study the Plan before Parliamentary debate
Parliament is to meet in two weeks time to debate and approve the Second Malaysia Five-Year Plan, which will play down the economic future of the country for the next five years,

But till today, Members of Parliament have not received copies of the Second Five-Year Plan. Continue reading Call to government to release Second Malaysia Plan to MPs and to give them ample time to study the Plan before Parliamentary debate

DAP MP’s Seminar on First and Second Malaysia Plan

DAP MP’s Seminar on First and Second Malaysia Plan

The second meeting of Parliament is likely to be in June, about two months hence.

The most important parliamentary business will be the government’s presentation of the Second Malaysia Plan.

Such a project will not only involve a debate on the government’s Second Malaysia Plan, which ash not yet been made public, but also a review and critique of the First Malaysia Plan, by comparing its promises with its performance. Continue reading DAP MP’s Seminar on First and Second Malaysia Plan

Government’s aim to eradicate poverty and to strengthen national unity

Speech by Member of Parliament for Bandar Melaka (DAP) Mr.Lim Kit Siang, in the Dewan Ra’ayat on the debate on the Royal Address from the Throne on 9.3.1971

Mr.Speaker, Sir, His Majesty, the Yang di-Peruan Agong, in his Royal Address, spoke of the government’s aim to eradicate poverty and to strengthen national unity.

We do not quarrel with these objectives. But there is considerable room for disagreement as to whether government policies and measures are aimed at these objectives, or whether, on the converse, they can only aggravate economic inequality and undermine national solidarity and unity.

Despite the government’s multi-pronged economic policies, the single most important economic and social problem continues to be unemployment, which condemns hundreds of thousands of Malaysians to a sentences of poverty, social humiliation and disgrace. Continue reading Government’s aim to eradicate poverty and to strengthen national unity

Kepong Squatters

DAP Secretary-General and M.P. for Bandar Melaka, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, today issues the following statement:

Kepong Squatters

Together with the M.P. for Damansara and State Assemblyman for Penchala, Sdr. Hor Cheok Foon, the State Assemblyman for Serdang, Sdr. Yap Pian Hon, Sdr. Lau Dak Kee and Sdr. Khoo Thin Fook, I visited Kepong and the aquatters who are affected by the present squatter clearance exercise.

The Kepong squatter problem is not an isolated local problem, but a national problem, as it is part of a Kuala Lumpur-wide exercise to clear and uproot the life of about 200,000 people – one third of the people of Kuala Lumpur. Continue reading Kepong Squatters

All-party debate on Rukunegara

Speech by DAP Secretary-General and M.P. for Bandar Melaka, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, at a reception given by Malacca DAP at Malacca Town Hall on Sunday, 18th Oct. 1970 at 11 a.m.

All-party debate on Rukunegara

In Penang last Wednesday, I suggested a public discussion and debate, including over radio and television, on Rukunegara.

For this suggestion, I was attacked and threatened by some quarters who regard such a proposal anti-national and criminal. It may be that to these people, the Sedition Act should cover the Rukunegara and all other issues where differences of views may arise between the government and the governed. Continue reading All-party debate on Rukunegara

Second Malaysia plan must play emphasis on job creation

SECOND MALAYSIA PLAN MUST LAY EMPHASIS ON JOB CREATION

As the Government is poised to launch the Second Malaysia five-year Plan, we in DAP cannot but feel concerned as to how this second five-year plan is to be formulated and where its emphasis lies.

As pointed out by our Deputy Secretary-General, Mr. Fan Yew Teng, it is only logical that before we decide to embark on the second five-year plan, we should examine the first plan to find out our shortcomings so that we can learn from our past mistakes.

For all that we know, the first five-year plan (1966-70) was a dismal failure in terms of job creation. It will be recalled that the first Malaysia Plan set a target of creating 92,500 jobs a year to reduce unemployment from 6 per cent to 5.2 percent of the labour. Continue reading Second Malaysia plan must play emphasis on job creation

DAP’s three-Point Plan to save Malacca from the fate of a Dead City

Speech by DAP Organising Secretary and Parliamentary Candidate for Bandar Melaka, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, at the 6th DAP Public Rally at Bachang Chew Loy, Malacca, on Tuesday, 22nd April 1969:

As a result of a decade of Alliance neglect and lack of foresight, Malacca is fast becoming a Dead City.

Unemployment in Malacca has worsened, with thousands of Malacca youths roaming the streets with Senior Cambridge and Senior Middle Three certificates, or even with Nanyang and Formosan University degrees and qualifications – without jobs.

Stevedores at quayside are lying idle without work. Businessman and shops in the town centre report less and less business.

And now, with the Terendak Camp to be closed down by the beginning of next year, Malacca will enter a serious economic crisis which she is entirely unprepared to meet and resolve by a decade of Alliance incompetence, negligence and failures.
Ten years ago, far-sighted people were talking of the need to have a port in Malacca, an industrial estate and to develop the tourist potential of the oldest Sultanate in Malaysia, to rejuvenate Malacca economy and life. Continue reading DAP’s three-Point Plan to save Malacca from the fate of a Dead City