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Lim Guan Eng. DAP. Malaysia
Speech
by
Ronnie Liu Tian Khiew
(Petaling Jaya, Friday):
Tonight, we gather here to celebrate
the return of Lim Guan Eng to active politics. Some call it "The Return of
the Jedi".
You have Yoda who leads the
good guys. And Darth Vader who represents the dark forces. Yoda and Darth
Vader are destined to fight with each other, each representing the interest
of their own colonies.
Win or lose. Come what may.
Yoda has to soldier on to protect his people. And likewise, you can rest
assured that Guan Eng will soldier on to protect the rights of the people.
Man or women. Under-aged or adults. Ordinary. Or no ordinary.
Lim Guan Eng is a true
Malaysian son. He has emerged stronger in the baptism of fire.
We in the DAP can count on him
to help leading the party to a greater height. We need dynamic, courageous
and tested leaders like Guan Eng to bring up the party in the face of both
internal and external challenges.
DAP
DAP maybe the biggest opposition
party in terms of parliamentary standing. But it's very crucial for the
party to break out of our moulds in the coming three to four years.
We have to enlarge our base
fairly quickly. We need more Malaysians to join our cause. For freedom,
democracy, justice, peace and solidarity with the people.
How do we recruit more young
people? How do we attract more non-Malays to support us? How do we get our
women to be more interested in politics? How do we organise ourselves into a
better movement? How do we improve our party coffers? How do we make more
Malaysians to understand the real struggle of the DAP?
We need a strong, dynamic and
cohesive leadership to take on these challenges ahead of us.
Malaysia
We believe Malaysia is in
trouble thanks to the not-so-effective governance of the Barisan Nasional
Government. Never mind about the so-called 8% growth for the first two
quarters released by the Bank Negara. Even countries like Indonesia can
manipulate with GDP figures to boost its image.
We want Pak Lah to tell us, how
many barrels of crude oil we have sold in advance during the 1997 financial
and economic crisis? Is it true that most of the crude oil we sold to Japan
and Taiwan were fixed at less than US$20 per barrel, and the current price
of US$45 or higher has got nothing to do with us?
Our Cheras MP Tan Kok Wai found
out that our national foreign debt now stands at RM200 billion. How do we
pay our bills without hurting our economy with such a humongous debt?
There's too much of
uncertainties due to the not-so-dynamic Pak Lah premiership. He cannot hope
to achieve a healthier economy for Malaysia by just making
politically-correct speeches and statements. Where are the real reforms he
has been talking about? We want to tell him that the Islam Hadhari he coined
is not an answer to our multi-religious society.
We do not want him to stop at
suspending the dual railway tracks project. But how about the Bakun Dam with
no buyers for the electricity generated? How about the world's largest Broga
incinerator which acts like a cancer factory?
We do not want him to stop at
suspending the 'curve half bridge' over the Strait of Johor. We want him to
really get down into business to resolve the water supply and a host of
other pending controversies with our neighbour in the south. A better
Malaysian-Singaporean relationship will certainly work for our national
interest.
We do not want him to stop at
going after Kasitah Gaddam and Eric Cheah. What has happened to the 18 big
sharks mentioned by the former de facto law minister Rais Yatim? Why can't
he give more bite to the ACA? Hong Kong has its ICAC. But our ACA is more
like an I-C-beh-C (half-dead, about to die).
Pak Lah has yet to clean up his
own Cabinet. How long more do we need to tolerate with minister like Samy
Vellu? And minister like Ong Ka Ting is no better. He simply has no clues on
how to help the Damansara original school, and other Chinese schools. He
dare not even explain to you and I, what has happened to the rightful
interest accrued over the past twenty years in the Chang Ming Thien
Foundation.
So, Malaysia needs a stronger
DAP to provide checks and balances. And we welcome Guan Eng’s return to
serve Malaysia through the platform of DAP.
(27/8/2004)
* Ronnie Liu
Tian Khiew, DAP national publicity secretary
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http://dapmalaysia.org