Category: Malaysian Malaysia

Malaysian Chinese may lose their citizenship if they vote the opposition party?

Statement by DAP Organising Secretary and Parliamentary Candidate for Bandar Melaka, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, on 18th April 1969:

Lim Kit Siang condemns Mr. Koh Kim Leng for declaring that the Malaysian Chinese may lose their citizenship if they vote the opposition party

My attention has just been drawn to a speech by the Alliance Candidate for Bandar Melaka, Mr. Koh Kim Leng, at an Alliance public rally at Hereen Street on 14th April 1969.

Mr. Koh said that if the people vote for the opposition party, then the Chinese may lose their citizenship in Malaysia. Mr. Koh Kim Leng went on to warn the Chinese that they must realize who have controls and posses the guns and knives, implying that it is the Malays who have the military power in the country.

I condemn in the strongest possible terms such irresponsible statement by an irresponsible politician. It is a downright threat to Malaysian Chinese in Malacca that if they do not vote for him and his MCA colleagues elsewhere, the Chinese will lose their citizenship and may even be slaughtered by the Malays. Continue reading Malaysian Chinese may lose their citizenship if they vote the opposition party?

The crusade for a Malaysian Malaysia

Speech by DAP Organising Secretary, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, at a DAP Public Rally at Dato Kramat, Penang, on Saturday, January 25, 1969 at 8p.m.

The coming general elections will be a serious test between the forces for a Malaysian Malaysia and the forces for a communal Malaysia.

We in the DAP believe that Malaysia does not belong to any one race, on language or one culture, but belongs to all the races, languages and cultures which have made Malaysia their home.

In other words, Malaysia is not a Malay country, Chinese country or Indian country, but a multi-racial, multi-lingual and multi-cultural nation.

One would have thought that this concept of a Malaysian nation will be accepted by all Malaysians. Unfortunately, this is not the case. History has provided endless examples of the long struggles and great sacrifices that countless peoples had made, and are still making, just to establish simple truths; whether it be the equality of men, the freedom of the mind, or that Malaysia belongs to all Malaysians and not to any one particular race. Continue reading The crusade for a Malaysian Malaysia

An Open Letter and Invitation to the people of Sungei Way.

Dear Fellow Malaysians of Sungei Way,

I wish, personally and on behalf of the DAP, to thank all of you who had supported and voted for the DAP in the recent Serdang by-election, and upheld the cause for a Malaysian Malaysia.

Although we did not win, we have laid the basis for certain victory in the coming general elections.

The campaign for a Malaysian Malaysia has just started. The new Malaysian nation we all want is one where there is equality and justice for all races and classes, where there is no first-class or and second-class Malaysian citizens by dividing them into ‘bumiputras’ and ‘non-bumiputras’ ; where no one races, languages and cultures through a ‘one nation, one language, one culture’ policy; where any child can go to school and learn, be taught and examined in his mother tongue where every worker, farmer, hawker, landless and the poor are cared by the government.

But whether we succeed in achieving a Malaysian Malaysia will finally depend on whether there are enough Malaysian men and women of idealism and courage who are prepared to join other like-minded Malaysians to defeat the forces of racialism, feudalism and corruption. Continue reading An Open Letter and Invitation to the people of Sungei Way.

Bukit Bintang- A base for the Malaysian Malaysia crusade

Speech by DAP Organising Secretary, Mr Lim Kit Siang, to the Pudu DAP Branch on Monday, 6th January 1969 at 8p.m.

The General Elections, which might be held as early in March, will be the first serious test for the Democratic Action Party since the formation less than three years ago.

The DAP was formed by the idealistic Malaysian who grouped together to bring about radical changes in Malaysian Society, to wipe out poverty, discrimination, corruption, racial prejudice and feudalism.

Unlike other political parties, the DAP is a tightly-knit organization with a collective leadership united on all decisions and policy issues.

This is the secret of the unity, consistency, and coherence of the DAP since its formation.

This qualities are necessary if the DAP is to become a movement, capable of challenging the very basis of Alliance power over a period of time.

We in the DAP are conscious of the fact if that the Alliance cannot be toppled in one year or two years, or in just one general elections. It will take several years, but whether it take five, ten or fifteen years, we in the DAP are resolved to continue the crusade for a Malaysian Malaysia until victory is ours. Continue reading Bukit Bintang- A base for the Malaysian Malaysia crusade

Repudiate racialist policies of the Alliance

Speech by DAP Serdang State by-election candidate, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, and DAP Organising Secretary, at a DAP Serdang by-election rally at Kuchai 6m.s. on Monday, December 23, 1968 at 8 p.m.

On 8th December, at a public rally at Sungei Way, I asked the Alliance candidate Mr. Thuan Phaik Fook, ten questions on language, education and culture.

It is already more than two weeks, but Mr. Thuan has not replied to my ten questions. We know the reason why. It is for the following reasons:

1. Mr. Thuan and the MCA oppose Chinese, Tamil and English as official languages, freely usable in the Parliament, State Assemblies, government correspondence and public notices.

2. They reject the DAP argument that Chinese is a Malaysian language, by virtue of the fact that it is used by large number of Malaysians, and must be promoted and allowed free development. Continue reading Repudiate racialist policies of the Alliance

Serdang by-election a test for the cause of multi-racialism

The DAP Organising Secretary and DAP Candidate for the Serdang State by-election (Selangor), Mr. Lim Kit Siang, today (28.11.68) issued the following statement after Nomination:

The Serdang State by-election is a test for the cause of multi-racialism and a Malaysian Malaysia.

Since independence, the forces of racialism and cultural and language chauvinism, as represented by the Alliance, and lately by the Gerakan as enunciated by its cultural expert, Dr. Syed Naguib Alatas, have dominated Malaysian political life.

This is why with every passing year, there is growing national division – because the various races, cultures and languages do not feel that they have a equal stake in a Malaysian nation, where there is no economic and political equality, cultural and language liberty, and social justice.

The Penang racial riots last year could be traced directly to this growing national mood of alienation among Malaysians.

All Malaysians who believe in the cause of a multi-racial Malaysia, and reject a communal and chauvinist Malaysia based on one language, one culture, must unite now to turn the tide of growing racialism. If we don’t act resolutely now, and defeat the forces of racialism in the constitutional and democratic arena, it may be too late. Continue reading Serdang by-election a test for the cause of multi-racialism

DAP-Gerakan Cultural Debate (Speech)

REF: LKS/16/11/68

Speech by DAP Organising Secretary, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, at the DAP-Gerakan cultural debate at the MARA Auditorium on Sunday, November 24, 1968 at 10 a.m.

Mr. Chairman and fellow Malaysians.

We gather here today to debate and discuss the DAP and Gerakan cultural policy, so as to ascertain whose policy is more relevant and suitable to Malaysia.

I submit that what we are debating and discussing today is one of the most vital problems facing Malaysia, because on it will depend the success or failure of the Malaysian experiment in multi-racial nationhood. Continue reading DAP-Gerakan Cultural Debate (Speech)

The debate with Dr. Naguib Alatas

Press Statement by DAP Organising Secretary, Lim Kit Siang, on 12.11.68:

The press has asked me for comments on Dr. Naguib Alatas’ statement today concerning the debate.

When I accepted Dr. Naguib Alatas’ open challenge to me to a debate with him on Gerakan’s cultural policy, I said I was prepared to do it ‘any time, any place and anywhere.’

I had suggested that the debate should be at the Chinese Assembly Hall, because it had three times the seating capacity as the MARA Auditorium, which could take in less than 500 people. I had felt sure that Dr. Naguib Alatas, with his great store of learning, would want more people to hear his words of wisdom and culture.

As Dr. Naguib Alatas insists on the MARA Auditorium, I am perfectly agreeable. It is rather childish for him to make charges like I am trying to run away from the debate. Continue reading The debate with Dr. Naguib Alatas

DAP Replies to Inche Khir Johari

The DAP Organising Secretary, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, today (11.11.68) issued the following statement:

The UMNO Secretary-General, Inche Khir Johari, has indulged in his usual past-time of mud-slinging the opposition party. He said yesterday that DAP’s ‘Malaysian Malaysia’ slogan was dangerous, but added that it was ‘nothing new’ as the Alliance had been working on the concept.

What Inche Khir meant is that the DAP’s Malaysian Malaysia campaign was dangerous to the Alliance Party and its election chances, as the majority of thinking Malaysians support the concept.

In a multi-racial society like ours, only a policy which gives to every citizen, regardless of his race, religion or language, an equal stake in the future of this country can succeed in uniting the diverse peoples into one nationhood. This, in short, is the meaning and objective of a Malaysian Malaysia.

Inche Khir even claims that the Alliance is working gradually for a ‘Malaysian Malaysia.’ Continue reading DAP Replies to Inche Khir Johari

Details of debate with Dr. Syed Naguib Alatas

The DAP Organising Secretary, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, today (9.11.68) issued the following statement:

I have already accepted the challenge by Dr. Syed Naguib Alatas to me to have a public debate on the Gerakan’s cultural policy.

But to date, we seemed to have agreed only on two things: the chairmanship of the debate by Mr. D. R. Seenivasagam, and the date of November 24.

To avoid misunderstanding, and avoid having to argue on November 24 about the procedures of the debate, I will outline the details of the debate:

Subject: Gerakan’s cultural policy, as enunciated by Dr. Syed Naguib Alatas publicly, which I have described as an attempt to Indonesianise Malaysian culture. Continue reading Details of debate with Dr. Syed Naguib Alatas