"M.G.G. Pillai" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Media Conference Statement by DAP National Chairman Lim Kit Siang in
Temerloh on Sanggang by-election Nomination Day on Tuesday, March 21, 2000
at 10 am
Sanggang voters have the great opportunity to do Malaysians and future
generations a great service by telling Barisan Nasional to stop the
undemocratic politics of spite, vendetta and vindictiveness initiated by
Malacca Chief Minister, Mohd Ali Rustam from becoming a new national policy
==================================================
All eyes in the country are now on Sanggang, a place the overwhelming
majority of Malaysians have never heard of until the by-election.
On Polling Day on April 1, 2000, either Sanggang will lapse into obscurity
if the Barisan Nasional candidate wins the seat or it will gain the hall of
fame in the annals of Malaysian parliamentary democracy if the Barisan
Al! ternative candidate becomes the State Assemblyman for the constituency.
In the November 1999 general election, if the Barisan Alternative had won
the Sanggang constituency, the present Pahang state government would most
probably be a Barisan Alternative government and not the present Barisan
Nasional government.
This is because in Pahang in the recent general election, although the
Barisan Alternative won eight seats out of 38, the Barisan Nasional could
have been ousted from the state government, as it won 11 seats with less than
1,000-vote majority (with six seats having razor-thin majorities ranging
from 86 to 321 votes) and another six seats with majorities ranging between
1,038 to 1,305 votes.
If the Barisan Alternative had won Sanggang, which it lost by 1,038 votes,
the Barisan Alternative might have won 20 out of 38 seats in the Pahang
State Assembly to capture the Pahang state government.
In this by-election, th! e Sanggang seat is not of such pivotal importance in
determining state power, for even if the Barisan Alternative wins the seat
on April 1, it could not affect state power and the state government would
continue in the hands of Barisan Nasional.
However, the role entrusted on the voters of Sanggang in the by-election on
April 1, 2000 is even more important than that during the recent general
election or at any time in the 43-year history of the nation.
Being a double-first, the first by-election after the 10th general election
and the first in the new millennium, the impact of the Sanggang by-election
will be far, wide and deep - well beyond Sanggang or Pahang state.
Locally, the Barisan Nasional will be using the development card to woo
voters. Ironically, the best way to ensure that Sanggang becomes the
pampered constituency of Pahang for all voters, regardless of race or
religion, in the next four years is for the voters to! support Barisan
Alternative and reject the Barisan Nasional.
This would serve notice on the Barisan Nasional in Pahang that the
possibility of its losing state power in the next general election is very
high and force the Barisan Nasional state government to direct more
development projects to Sanggang in the next four years unless it is
prepared to concede state power to the Barisan Alternative in the next
general election.
The importance of Sanggang by-election, however, goes beyond Pahang and
affects the whole country and the future of democracy because it would be
seen as a barometer of people's aspirations in the new millennium after the
recent general election.
The last general election was greatly flawed because it was the dirtiest
general election in history, with 680,000 new voters undemocratically
disenfranchised, the Barisan Nasional campaign of lies and falsehoods and
the politics of fear about May 13 and ra! cial riots.
Malay and non-Malay voters reacted differently to the fork-tongued Barisan
Nasional campaign, on the one hand warning the Malays that "DAP Plus PAS =
Hancur Islam" while on the other hand trying to frighten the Chinese and
non-Malay voters that "a vote for DAP is a vote for PAS and Islamic State
where there would be no pork, no alcohol, no karaoke, no temples, no Chinese
schools, Chinese women have to cover their heads, pretty women would have no
work and that there would be chopping of hands and feet".
This fork-tongued Barisan Nasional campaign is palpably dishonest, untrue
and totally contradictory of each other that both lines cannot stand
together and be true. At most, only one of the two can be true. In actual
fact, both lines are untrue.
By and large, the Malay voters rejected the Barisan Nasional campaign of
lies and falsehoods while the Chinese and non-Malay voters succumbed and
fell victim to it, resul! ting in their unprecedented swing against the DAP
and the Barisan Alternative where I was even defeated from entering
Parliament for the first time in 30 years.
The Sanggang by-election is important because it will be the first test
since the general election to find answers to three questions:
Firstly, whether it is true as claimed by UMNO leaders that Malay voters are
returning to support UMNO after the general election.
Secondly, whether the Chinese and non-Malay voters can see through the lies
of the Barisan Nasional propaganda that "a vote for DAP is a vote for PAS
and Islamic State where there would be no pork, no alcohol, no karaoke, no
temples, no Chinese schools, Chinese women have to cover their heads, pretty
women would have no work and that there would be chopping of hands and feet".
Thirdly, whether Malaysian voters can continue to support the Barisan
Alternative to bring about a paradigm shift in Malaysian po! litics and
create a new Malaysia where politics will be less dominated by race and
religion and more issues-centred as on questions of justice, freedom,
democracy and good governance.
In this regard, Sanggang voters have the great opportunity to do Malaysians
and future generations a great service by telling Barisan Nasional to stop
the undemocratic politics of spite, vendetta and vindictiveness initiated by
Malacca Chief Minister, Mohd Ali Rustam from becoming a new national policy.
They also have the great opportunity to express the national disgust at the
light and lenient treatment received by the former Inspector-General of
Police, Tan Sri Rahim Noor for the assault on a defenceless, handcuffed and
blind-folded former Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim when in
police custody in Bukit Aman lock-up on Sept. 20, 1998 with nearly fatal
consequences.
Most important of all, Sanggang voters have the opportunity t! o send out a
clear and loud message to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir
Mohamad and the UMNO and Barisan Nasional leaderships to respond positively
to the cries for justice, freedom, democracy and good governance made by 44
per cent of the national electorate in the November 1999 general election.
- Lim Kit Siang -
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Email DAP at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
* DAP National Homepage
* Bungaraya Archives are available at
* To unsubscribe, send a message with "unsubscribe" in the body to
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
COUNTERBALANCE.ANYWHERE.ANYTIME.ANYBODY.ANYONE.COM
Do You Yahoo!?
Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
