Opening Speech by Loke Siew Fook at the 2009 DAPSY Orientation Camp in Tiara 3 Ballroom, Tiara Beach Resort, Port Dickson on Saturday, 11^th April 2009:

DAPSY Orientation Camp - Instill a sense of understanding among members on the party’s ideology and struggle

I welcome you, my fellow comrades, to the 2009 DAPSY orientation and training camp that is held in Port Dickson, one of the best beach resorts in Malaysia, especially in the west coast of the Peninsula. I’m extending this welcome to all of you on behalf of my home state, Negeri Sembilan, which can potentially become a Pakatan Rakyat state in the near future.

I’m pleased to see that DAPSY divisions across the country have sent such a large delegation to attend this camp, because this is a very important training camp. The objective of this camp is to instill a sense of understanding among members on the party’s ideology and struggle. We have organized such camps in the past, but we’ve never had such enthusiastic support. More than a hundred participants are in this hall waiting eagerly to kick off this camp – this is a fantastic sign that will provide great encouragement to DAPSY to organize a much larger camp is the future.

One of the reasons for organizing this camp is that we have not stressed enough on our party ideology. Some comrades have not understood our ideology, direction, organization and culture. If you could remember, during our DAPSY Congress last December, many questions were raised on the direction of DAPSY, including the question of whether we are a left wing or a right wing movement.

Therefore, I hope that all of you will pay full attention throughout the few modules of the training, from party ideology to party organization. We need to know what we’re fighting for.

This camp would not have been made possible without the support of the DAPSY National Executive Council, divisions and members. For the first time ever, the party headquarters also allocated a sizable amount of subsidy for DAPSY to make this camp possible. Deputy Chairman, Saudari Jenice Lee has also contributed some funds for this event.

I would like to stress that DAP is not an ‘eat, drink and be merry’ party. DAP is a party with strong principles and beliefs, which is serious about its struggles for fairness, justice and democracy in Malaysia.

After attending this camp, I hope that all of you can become trainers yourselves in your particular branches and states. I hope that you can go home and train your fellow members, especially those who are new, so that when we participate in a debate, or when we write statements, we can reflect the party’s positions in various matters. Our ideology is our guiding principle, so we must truly understand it when we’re making statements on behalf of the party.

I’d like to thank the organizers, namely Saudara Ooi Leng Hang, the DAPSY Political Education Bureau director, and Saudara Chua Yew Choong, the Chairman of DAPSY Pandan division, for putting in a lot of time and effort for this camp.

I hope all of you will pay attention and also enjoy the modules at the same time. Have a fruitful and meaningful camp! Thank you.

* Loke Siew Fook, DAP Socialist Youth (DAPSY) National Chairman & MP for Rasah