(Petaling Jaya, Saturday): DAP must warn that it is an offence of sedition, criminal defamation and libel/slander to accuse any Malaysian of wanting to abolish Malay special rights as it is an entrenched sensitive issue in the Constitution which cannot be questioned - like accusing any Malaysian of wanting to abolish the Malay Rulers’ system.
Senator Datuk Zainuddin Maidin is the latest UMNO personality to level such a baseless accusation against the DAP.
Senator Zainuddin, as a veteran journalist, and UMNO leaders should be aware of the gravity of their allegations, as after the 1971 Constitution Amendment Act, if the DAP leaders want to abolish Malay special rights, then all the DAP leaders would have committed sedition and the DAP would be deregistered as a political party under the Societies Act.
If UMNO leaders do not immediately stop their wild, baseless and seditious allegations, the DAP will lodge police reports against all who had been responsible for committing such an offence of sedition and criminal defamation against the DAP in the past few days and put the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Mohtar Abdullah to the test as to whether he is prepared to sanction prosecutions to uphold the law and the Constitution.
The next step after the lodging of police reports will be the filing of defamation proceedings.
The accusation that the DAP wants to abolish Malay special rights is not only an offence of sedition and criminal defamation as a result of the 1971 Constitution Amendment, it is also completely baseless and untrue.
DAP leaders had made it very clear that what the DAP was opposed was not Malay special rights but the abuse of Malay special rights to create, in modern parlance, KKN - corruption, cronyism and nepotism!
In my very first speech in Parliament on February 23, 1971, I had challenged the government to produce a single instance from the speeches and statements of DAP leaders to show that the DAP had opposed efforts to raise the economic standards of living of the Malays.
This is from the Hansard of February 23, 1971:
What I find most disappointing, however, is the reaction of MCA and Gerakan leaders, whether Datuk Seri Dr. Ling Liong Sik, Kerk Choo Ting or Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon to the revival of the old politics of fear and hate - showing that the leaders of Barisan Nasional component parties do not have a mind of their own are prepared to give blind support to any form of baseless attack on the DAP by certain UMNO leaders.
(15/5/99)