http://dapmalaysia.org  

Keng Yaik’s greatest national disservice in his entire political life is to repudiate Bapa Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman’s legacy message 20 years ago “Don’t turn Malaysia into an Islamic State” by supporting the “929 Declaration” that Malaysia is an Islamic State, limiting his opposition only to PAS Islamic State Speech (2) - at the Perak DAP State Dinner by Lim Kit Siang (Ipoh,  Sunday): Gerakan President and Primary Industries Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Lim Keng Yaik made the astounding claim in Ipoh on last month (October 12, 2003) that Malaysia was already an Islamic State when she achieved independence in 1957. I have no doubt that if the question had been asked  in the first 44 years of Malaysian nationhood from 1957 to 2001  whether Malaysia was an Islamic State on achieving Merdeka,  100 per cent of all Malaysians, whether Malays, Chinese, Indians, Ibans or Kadazans;  whether Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus and Sikhs; and regardless of whether members of  UMNO, MCA, Gerakan, MIC or any other Barisan Nasional party or in Opposition, whether DAP, PAS or Parti Rakyat, the answer would have been a  clear and unequivocal “No”!  There would not be a single sane  person who would have answered “Yes”. Gerakan had  always prided itself as the “conscience” of the Barisan Nasional.  Can Keng Yaik explain why he and the other  Gerakan leaders had failed to play their self-proclaimed  role as the “keeper of the Barisan Nasional conscience” by making crystal clear to the then Prime Minister and the Barisan Nasional leadership that the “929 Declaration” of 2001 that Malaysia was an Islamic State ran counter to the “social contract” reached by the forefathers of the major communities on attaining national independence and as spelt out in  the 1957 Merdeka Constitution, the 1963 Malaysia Agreement and  the 1970 Rukunegara? Keng Yaik’s greatest national disservice in his entire political life is to repudiate Bapa Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman’s legacy message 20 years ago “Don’t turn Malaysia into an Islamic State” by supporting the “929 Declaration” that Malaysia is an Islamic State, limiting his opposition only to PAS Islamic State. PAS Islamic State blueprint must be opposed, but the only effective way to ensure that Malaysia does not go down the path of the Islamic State as envisioned by PAS is also to reject the  so-called “moderate” Islamic State advocated by UMNO in the arbitrary and unconstitutional “929 Declaration” that Malaysia is an Islamic State made at the Gerakan National Delegates Conference on Sept. 29, 2001. Malaysia has undergone a sea-change in the nation-building process in the passt four years  with very few people conscious of its grave  far-reaching political, economic, educational, socio-cultural and citizenship repercussions. In my 30 years in Parliament from 1969-1999, I had never heard the term “Islamic State” used in any parliamentary debate, but in the past four years, Parliament has been turned into a battleground between PAS and UMNO to turn Malaysia into an Islamic state. For over four decades until four years ago, the defence of a secular Malaysia with Islam as the official religion was the mainstream nation-building agenda while calls for an Islamic State were rare and came from the periphery of the nation and society. However, in the past four years, a secular Malaysia with Islam as the official religion as popularized by the first three Prime Ministers have become a “dirty expression” and pushed to the periphery, replaced in the mainstream agenda by an Islamic State – whether ala-UMNO or ala-PAS. If this spiral of UMNO-PAS competition to out-Islam each other and turn Malaysia into an Islamic state is not halted, it may not be long (and could be as fast as after the next general election), when what was mainstream nation-building agenda, viz. to defend and uphold a secular Malaysia with Islam as the official religion, could be regarded as seditious and anti-national! There are two important reasons for this sea-change in the nation-building process: The political and parliamentary marginalization of DAP in the 1999 general election, where DAP was the biggest loser in the Opposition, thanks to the campaign of lies and falsehoods of Gerakan and MCA that a vote for DAP was a vote for PAS and a vote for an Islamic State. The failure of the Barisan Nasional to stand firm by the legacy of the first three Prime  Ministers to defend the 46-year fundamental constitutional principle of Malaysia as a democratic, secular and multi-religious nation with Islam as the official religion but not an Islamic state. If the DAP had won 25 to 30 parliamentary seats in the 1999 general election, there would be no “929 declaration” or the UMNO-PAS competition to out-Islam each other to turn Malaysia into an Islamic state, for the Barisan Nasional would have to be mindful of the reactions of both Muslim and non-Muslim sectors of the population. With the continued debacle  of DAP in Parliament in the 1999 general election as in the 1995 general election, UMNO was only concerned about competing with PAS to win back the lost Malay electoral ground, without having to worry about the concerns of the moderate Malays or the  non-Muslim electorate, whose support could be taken for granted as safely in the Barisan Nasional bag! This is why I say that Keng Yaik’s greatest national disservice in his entire political life is to repudiate Bapa Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman’s legacy message 20 years ago “Don’t turn Malaysia into an Islamic State” by supporting the “929 Declaration” that Malaysia is an Islamic State, limiting his opposition only to PAS Islamic State – and even worse, making the completely baseless claim that Malaysia had been an Islamic State when it achieved Merdeka in 1957. (16/11/2003) * Lim Kit Siang, DAP National Chairman