Category: Parliamentary Speeches

Pusat Serenti Tampin – Reign of Terror

Two weeks ago, on 17th November 1982, I called a press conference to tell the ordeal of an inmate in the Kuala Kubu Baru Drug Rehabilitation Centre, Chow Yue Kum, 27, from Malacca, who absconded from the Centre to which he was committed by court for drug addiction, because he was in mortal fear for his life.

Chow escaped from the Kuala Baru Drug rehabilitation Centre, on November 15, not because he was afraid of the officials of the Centre, but because of his fear at the ‘reign of terror’ imposed by drug inmates who have formed ‘government within a government’. Continue reading Pusat Serenti Tampin – Reign of Terror

The Plight of Trawler Fishermen

Trawler fishermen, who had been encouraged by the Fisheries Department to convert from traditional methods to trawler fishing in the mid-1960s, to help increase the total fish landings in the country, are now faced with great hardships and difficulties, especially after 1980 Fisheries Regulations which require trawl nets to have mesh size of not less than 1.5 inches, as compared to the previous 1 inch mesh size.

On 19th October 1982, the Batu Pahat Fisheries Association, Johore, in an emergency meeting, adopted the following resolutions requesting the Minister of Agriculture to help them: Continue reading The Plight of Trawler Fishermen

Ten Basis for National Unity

The 2M Government’s call for an efficient and competent administrator cannot succeed unless Parliament, as well as Ministers and Deputy Ministers, set an example of efficiency and competence.

I am concerned that Ministry and Deputy Ministers are becoming slipshod in their work, showing lack of grasp and sometimes total ignorance of their Ministerial responsibility, and when they do this in Parliament, they are not only doing their Ministerial posts a disservice, they are also showing Parliament no respect. Continue reading Ten Basis for National Unity

DAP calls for withdrawal of 5% Sales Tax increase and the deferring of the $1,900 million defence development expenditure for 1983 until better economic times

Speech by Parliament Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, on the 1983 Budget in the Dewan Rakyat on Monday, 25th October 1982.

DAP calls for withdrawal of 5% Sales Tax increase and the deferring of the $1,900 million defence development expenditure for 1983 until better economic times.

Last October, the Finance Minister, Tengku Razaleigh, presented the 1982 Budget deliberately to generate euphoria to win votes in the April general elections, hiding the grim truths of hard economic times from the people. Continue reading DAP calls for withdrawal of 5% Sales Tax increase and the deferring of the $1,900 million defence development expenditure for 1983 until better economic times

One Language, One Culture

On behalf of the DAP, I rise to thank His Majesty for His Royal Address yesterday in conjunction with the official opening of the First Session of the Sixth Parliament, setting out the Government’s policy statement of the year.

Right from the beginning, it is obvious that the Barisan Nasional is still in a euphoria at its success in the April General Elections and could not resist the temptation to indulge in self-praise. Continue reading One Language, One Culture

Parliamentary reforms to make Parliamentary control of Executive more effective and meaningful necessary 23 years after Merdeka

(Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Petaling, Lim Kit Siang, in the Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday, 17th June 1980 when introducing the motion proposing the formation of a Speaker’s Conference on Parliamentary Reforms)

Parliamentary reforms to make Parliamentary control of Executive more effective and meaningful necessary 23 years after Merdeka

I move:

“That this House resolves to set up a Parliamentary Committee, under the Chairmanship of Mr. Speaker, to be known as the Speaker’s Conference on parliamentary Reforms, to make recommendations to the House on reforms to parliamentary procedures and practices to make the Dewan Rakyat a more effective legislative and deliberative chamber and to give substance to the important principle of parliamentary control of the Executive.” Continue reading Parliamentary reforms to make Parliamentary control of Executive more effective and meaningful necessary 23 years after Merdeka

Abdication of parliamentary responsibility

(Speech by the Parliamentary Leader, DAP Secretary-General and Member of Parliament for Petaling, Lim Kit Siang, in the Dewan Rakyat when winding up on the motion calling for the annulment of the Four Proclamation of Emergency of 1964, 1966, 1969 and 1977 on June 29, 1979)

Yesterday, when moving the motion that Parliament annul the Four Proclamations of Emergency now still in force, namely the 1964 Proclamation of Indonesian Confrontation, the 1966 Proclamation aimed at toppling Stephen Kalong Ningkan as Chief Minister of Sarawak, the 1969 Proclamation of May 13 riots, and the 1977 Proclamation to oust PAS from its traditional rule over Kelantan State, I said that the four sets of conditions of the Four Proclamations have long ceased to exist.

Unfortunately, during yesterday’s debate, Barisan and UMN0 back-benchers said a lot, but nobody really explained why for instance the 1964 Emergency Proclamation should continue when Indonesian Confrontation had ended or why the 1966 Emergency Proclamation-should continue when Stephen Kalong Ningkan had been toppled as Sarawak Chief Minister and three general elections had been held in Sarawak since then, or why the 1977 Emergency Proclamation should continue when UMNO is safely in control of the Kelantan State Government. Even for the 1969 Proclamation of Emergency, not a single Government MP dealt cogently, rationally ; soberly with my argument that as it was promulgated to deal with a grave emergency, namely May 13 riots, the Proclamation should be terminated with the end of that emergency situation Continue reading Abdication of parliamentary responsibility

The four Proclamation of Emergency

(Speech by the Parliamentary Leader, DAP Secretary-General and Member of Parliament for Petaling, Lim Kit Siang, in the Dewan Rakyat when moving a motion to annul the Four Proclamations of Emergency in Malaysia on June 28, 1979)

Firstly, let me place on record my thanks to the Prime Minister, Datuk Hussein Onn, for agreeing to allocate time for debate on this motion on the annulment of Proclamations of Emergency, although the promised three day debate has been reduced to two; and although it would be at the expense of my other motion on the establishment of an all-party Speaker’s Conference on Parliamentary Reforms, which I hope and request the Prime Minister to consider granting parliamentary time at the very beginning of the next meeting of Parliament.

Mr. Speaker Sir, the motion that I am moving, with slight amendments, now reads: Continue reading The four Proclamation of Emergency

Conditions of detention

(Speech by the Parliamentary Leader, DAP Secretary-General and Member of Parliament for Petaling, Lim Kit Siang, in the Dewan Rakyat on the Development Supplementary Estimates (1979) during the Committee Stage on April 3, 1979)

In the first development supplementary estimates 1979 for the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Government is asking for an addition $1 million for the
building of the Simpang Rengam Detention Camp in Johore. This follows the revision of the original estimates of $7 million to be spent on the project under the Third Malaysia Plan from 1976 – 1980 to $15 million.

Recently, the Bar Council sent a memorandum to the Ministry of Home Affairs on ill-treatment of political detainees in Taiping and Batu Gajah detention camps, on poor medical treatments, prolonged solitary confinements, hand-cuffing of political detainees going to hospital for treatment which is degrading and humiliating; deprivation of correspondence and from home, and others. Although the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Datuk Syed Sheh Shabuddin, immediately denied the Bar Council allegations, the denial is not convincing or satisfactory, as it is self-serving. Continue reading Conditions of detention

The Meaning of Malaysian Nationality

(Speech by the Parliamentary Leader, DAP Secretary-General and Member of Parliament for Petaling, Lim Kit Siang, in the Dewan Rakyat on the Mid-Term Review of the Third Malaysian Plan on March 22, 1979)

Both the Second and Third Malaysia Plans have proclaimed that the over-riding objective of the New Economic Policy is the attainment of national unity in the country.

Both prongs of the New Economic Policy, to eradicate poverty regardless of race and the restructuring of Malaysian society, are aimed at this single overriding objective: the attainment of national unity. Continue reading The Meaning of Malaysian Nationality