Based on the DAP’s 34-year record of fighting against injustice and inequalities in Malaysia, the DAP would be in the forefront calling on the Sanggang voters to reject PAS if there is any basis in these MCA and Gerakan lies and falsehoods.
The DAP deserved to suffer a catastrophic defeat in the recent general election, and I deserve to be voted out of Parliament for the first time in 30 years, if there was any truth in the MCA and Gerakan allegations that a vote for DAP is a vote for PAS and an Islamic State where the Chinese will have no pork, no alcohol, no temples, no Chinese schools, pretty women cannot find work, there would be chopping of hands and feet, Chinese rights would be lost and the Chinese would become an "oppressed race" in the country.
These are however all lies and falsehoods and this is why MCA and Gerakan leaders dare not make these allegations openly and publicly but only whisper them on the ground in their "house-to-house" visits or "vegetable-basket politics".
The 5,119 Chinese voters in Sanggang have a historic responsibility in the by-election on April 1, 2000, not only to elect their State Assemblyman but even more important to let it be known that the Malaysian Chinese is not an easily-duped community which could continue to be misled by lies and falsehoods about the DAP supporting PAS to make the Chinese "an oppressed race" in Malaysia - spearheading the "Sanggang effect" to restore dignity of the Chinese community and the respect of other races.
Can MCA explain why it supported the "The Control and Restriction of the Propagation of Non-Muslim Religions Enactment" in six state assemblies and the banning of rearing and slaughter of pig in Terengganu for 10 years?
In the by-election, MCA leaders like Datuk Chan Kong Choy had resorted to lies and falsehoods to try to mislead the Chinese voters into believing that I have become the greatest advocate for an Islamic State, the greatest anti-Chinese and in fact a traitor to the Chinese community.
MCA and Gerakan believe that as a result of the great success of their campaign of lies and falsehoods about the DAP and PAS in the last general election, they have found a campaign strategy which they could use for the next 10 to 20 years to frighten the Chinese voters away from the DAP - and block the people’s aspirations for change to bring about justice, freedom, democracy and good governance.
Let Sanggang by-election be the first historic political landmark in the new millennium where the Malaysian Chinese can tell the MCA and Gerakan that they are wrong and that the Malaysian Chinese is not an easily-duped community which can continue to be misled by lies and falsehoods.
During the by-election campaign, Chan Kong Choy had raised the private member’s bill submitted by Hadi Awang in the previous Parliament on "Control and Restriction of Propagation of Non-Muslim Religions (Federal Territories) 1999" in the last Parliamentary meeting.
The Bill was submitted to Parliament before the Barisan Alternative reached agreement on a common manifesto entitled "Towards A Just Malaysia".
Chan Kong Choy said the MCA opposed the private member’s bill. The DAP has gone on record as opposing this private member’s bill. The MCA is however dishonest and insincere on this issue, as this is a typical example of MCA saying one thing but doing the opposite.
In 1988, DAP was the only party whose State Assemblymen opposed and voted against the passage of "The Control and Restriction of the Propagation of Non-Muslim Religions Enactment" in the various UMNO-controlled states such as Perak, Selangor, Johore, Negri Sembilan, Malacca and Kedah - which were fully supported by the MCA and Gerakan State Assemblymen throughout the country - in the same manner the national and state MCA supported the Terengganu UMNO State Government to ban the rearing and slaughter of pigs in Terengganu state for ten years from 1990.
Can MCA explain why it supported the "The Control and Restriction of the Propagation of Non-Muslim Religions Enactment" in six state assemblies and the banning of rearing and slaughter of pig in Terengganu for 10 years?
DAP is co-operating with PAS in Barisan Alternative not to establish an Islamic State but to create a New Malaysia where there is justice, freedom, democracy and good governance
DAP’s stand on the question of an Islamic State is very clear and had remained unchanged since the founding of the party in 1966 34 years ago.
DAP will not support an Islamic state as our objective is that Malaysia shall remain forever a secular democratic Malaysia. This is a fundamental founding principle of the party which cannot be compromised.
DAP opposes Islamic State and our co-operation with PAS in Barisan Alternative is not to establish an Islamic State but to create a New Malaysia where there is justice, freedom, democracy and good governance
This is why the Barisan Alternative common manifesto "Towards
A Just Malaysia" made no mention of an Islamic State.
(29/3/2000)