Opening Speech By DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng During The 2013 Penang State Ordinary Convention In George Town Hotel On 1.12.2013.
Keeping The Malaysian Dream Alive By Making Penang No.1 In Malaysia.
I wish to congratulate all Penang DAP leaders and members under the leadership of Sdr Chow Kon Yeow for your hard work and unity in helping PR achieve a great victory in the 2013 general elections with an additional state seat by winning 30 out of 40 state seats and an increased popular vote of 68%, the highest in the country. DAP obtained increased support from all Penangites, including Malays. Despite BN’s politics of racial and religious hatred, PAS leader Dr Zulkifli Ahmad cited Penang as one of the two states that PR won an increased Malay support(2%), the other being Terengganu(4%).
On behalf of PR and DAP, we humbly thank Penang voters for their confidence by helping us to retain power in Penang. With power comes responsibility.
Sdr Lim Kit Siang has called on our supporters to keep faith in our great Malaysian dream in the next general elections. By being a partner in power with PR in Penang, DAP Penang leaders and members have a heavier responsibility to keep this Malaysian dream alive by making Penang No.1 in Malaysia.
A Malaysian dream of a Malaysia for all Malaysians regardless of race, religion, class or region where democracy, good governance, clean leadership, economic prosperity and socio-economic justice could flourish to allow every Malaysian to live with dignity and an equal opportunity to achieve his or her fullest potential, in an environment that is clean, green, safe and healthy.
PR have shown in our 5 years in Penang, that even though without any experience, we can govern better than BN with 50 years of experience. We have shown that a clean government can perform better than a corrupt government. We have shown that a PR government can inspire confidence from investors and the business community with the highest investments in Penang history.
We have shown that we can wipe out poverty in 5 years that BN can not do in 50 years. We have shown we can spend more than RM100 million yearly on welfare assistance without going bankrupt. We have shown that we can make Penang cleaner in a state that BN condemned as the dirtiest in the country. We have shown that we can make Penang safer. We have shown we can make Penang come alive as the cultural and heritage capital of Malaysia.
Most importantly we have shown that we can help and be fair to everyone Malays, Chinese, Indians that it is not who you but what you are that is important.
These successes were achieved on the basis of party unity, bonded together by principles of truth, justice and integrity of our leaders and members as well as trusting in the wisdom of Penangites to find solutions to our problems. We still have much to do in terms of building affordable housing, resolving traffic congestion and making Penang the safest state in the country. Our greatest challenge is still building sufficient human talent to oil our future economic growth. If we want to win the future we have to invest in the future of education.
PR offers a future of hope because that future belongs to the people. BN’s future is only for their cronies as shown by these examples:-
• Talking about 1Malaysia and yet preaching racial and religious hatred by selecting Perkasa leaders as BN candidates.
• Talking about having confidence in our civil service, yet employing outside consultants with higher pay than our Prime Minister,
• Talking about employing good lecturers to lift the quality of university education in Malaysia which has gone from bad to worse yet still appoint Professors who commit plagiarism,
• Talking about fighting corruption but no one is punished for the RM52 billion bumi shares scandal nor the RM13 billion Port Klang Free Trade Zone scandal
• Talking about listening to the people and yet whitewashing mural paintings in Johor stating the fact that crime is a serious problem
• Praising Malaysians actors of the Chinese film who won the golden horse awards in Taiwan but at the same time ban the other Chinese film ‘new village’ in Malaysia,
• Spending billions of ringgit of rakyat’s funds to build our own national car only to find it being sold at a lower price overseas
• Spending billions of ringgit to sustain MAS only to find MAS practically bankrupt and selling air fares higher than a profitable self-financed Air Asia.
• Spending hundreds of millions of ringgit in public funds to rear cows that went to buying condominiums.
How can BN succeed despite such scandalous and shameful behaviour? The secret of BN’s success is that they manage to appear confident despite being corrupt and incompetent. In politics perception is everything. As long as BN can project that confidence that they can manage the country better than PR, even though BN’s record is making Malaysia as the world champion of corruption, they will still retain a significant level of support from Malaysian voters.
Another important factor that kept BN in power is the cheating and manipulation by the Election Commission. Despite winning 51% of the popular vote nationally at the last general elections, PR only won 40% of the parliamentary seats. The shocking admission by former Election Commission Chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid that he deliberately manipulated the redelineation of parliamentary constituencies during the last 3 exercises against non-Malays is unconstitutional. Clearly the present constituencies are both flawed and defective because it is not conducted and carried out in the interests of democracy of “one-person, one-vote, one-value”, justice and fairplay.
DAP condemns Tan Sri Abdul Rashid for failing to carry out his duties impartially and constitutionally and instead illegally conducted ethnic disenfranchisement or disempowerment that effectively reinforced BN’s policies of dividing Malaysians to first-class and second class Malaysians. DAP members must unite to fight for clean, free and fair elections if we are to win power and help make Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as our Prime Minister.
Before I end, let me share the views of one middle-class Malay lady, who is deeply concerned about the corruption, deteriorating standards in our education system, English and lack of equal opportunities for Malaysians without political connections for her children. She asks us not to forget the middle-class – too rich to be helped but too poor to survive and prosper in this unequal and corrupt society.
Let me assure her that when PR wins power in Putrajaya, we will not forget the middle-class like her but create equal opportunities for her children to succeed and prosper.
Lim Guan Eng
—–Mandarin Version —
民主行动党秘书长林冠英于2013年12月1日在槟城州党员代表大会在治市酒店发表演讲：
打造槟城成为全马第一，继续发扬马来西亚梦想。
我要祝贺全体槟州领袖及党员在曹观友的领导下，全力团结在2013年大选中让民联取得如此辉煌的成绩，在40个州议席中，赢得30个议席，并且增加了68%的多数票。人民对行动党支持度也增加，特别是马来人的支持度。尽管国阵玩弄种族及宗教仇恨政治，伊斯兰党领袖祖基菲里也曾指出，民联在两个州属的马来选票增加，其中槟城增加2%，登嘉楼增加4%。
我代表民联和行动党，感谢槟城选民对我们的信心，协助我们保住槟城。有了政权，我们有了责任。
林吉祥曾经叫我们的支持者，要在下届大选对我们的马来西亚梦想继续保持信心。做为槟州民联的执政伙伴，槟州行动党领袖及党员有更重要的责任，继续发扬马来西亚梦想，打造槟城成为全马第一，继续发扬马来西亚梦想。
马来西亚梦想是指全体马来西亚的国民，不分种族、宗教、阶层、地区，都能受到民主、良好施政、廉正领导、经济繁荣、社会经济正义的待遇，活得有尊严，并且拥有平等机会， 在净、绿、安、康的环境里，尽情发挥他们的潜能。
民联在过去5年已经有了表现，虽然我们没有执政经验，但是我们比国阵过去50年执政的表现更好。我们也展示了一个廉洁的政府可以比贪污政府表现更好。我们也证明了民联政府可以让投资者及商业群体更加有信心，让槟城获得历史上最多的投资额。
我们也证明了五年内我们可以扫除贫穷，这是国阵50年也做不到的。我们也证明我们可以每年拨出1亿令吉在福利援助计划，但是我们没有破产。曾经，国阵谴责槟城为最肮脏的州属，我们也证明我们可以让它更加干净。我们也让槟城更安全。我们也证明，我们可以让槟州以我国文化及古迹城的姿态复兴。
最重要的是，我们证明我们可以协助并公平对待每一个人，不论你是马来人、华人及印度人都不重要，只要你是马来西亚人。
这也成绩都是基于党内团结、领袖及党员秉持维护真理、正义及廉正而联系在一起，同时我们相信槟城人有智慧可以找到问题的解决方案。我们还有很多事情要做，兴建可负担房屋、解决交通阻塞、让槟州成为最安全的州属。我们最大的挑战的培育人力资源，以催化我们的经济成长。如果我们要赢得未来，我们必须投资在教育的未来。
民联拿出对未来的希望，因为未来属于人民。国阵的未来只是属于他们的朋党：
• 口喊一个马来西亚，却允许种族及宗教仇恨，遴选土权领袖为国阵候选人。
• 口说对我们的公务员有信心，但是却以高过首相的薪资聘用外面的顾问。
• 口说聘请好的讲师以提高我国大学教育的素质，但是情况却恶化到委任犯过剽窃的教授
• 口说肃贪，但是无人为520亿令吉土著股权丑闻负责，也无人为130亿令吉巴生港口自贸区丑闻负责。
• 口说听人民的话，但是却“漂白”柔佛州一副描绘罪案猖獗的壁画。
• 称贊獲得台灣金馬獎的馬來西亞中文電影華裔演員，卻在國內禁止另一部华语電影《新村》的上映。
• 花数千亿令吉人民的钱来资助国产车，到了国外才发现国人买贵车，国产车在外国的售价更低。
• 花数千亿令吉来保住马航，到头来才发现马航实际上已经破产，而且机票价格比自已融资、赚钱的亚航更高
• 花数千亿令吉来养牛，到头来才发现这些人拿钱去购买公寓。
国阵背负这些丑闻及无耻的做法要如何成功？国阵成功的秘密在于尽管他们贪污无能，却还能够看起来自信满满。在政治上，感观胜于一切。只能国阵继续表现得自信满满，一副他们可以把国家治理得比民联更好的样子，就算国阵已经破记录让马来西亚成为世界贪污之国的第一名，他们还是可以保住大多数马来西亚选民的支持。
另一个让国阵继续保住政权的重要因素是选委会的欺骗及操纵。尽管上届大选民联赢得51%的多数票，但是我们只获得40%的国会选区。最令人惊讶的是，前选委会主席丹斯里阿都拉昔自己召认，他过去三次刻意针对非马来人选民操纵国会选区划分是违宪的。很明显的，现在的选区是有问题、有缺点的，因为它不是在民主原则“一人、一票、一价”，公平自由选举的前提下进行的。
民主行动党谴责丹斯里阿都拉昔失责，他没有公正不阿地依据宪法执行任务，反而非法地以种族为前提剥夺人民的民主投票权利，强化国阵分而治之的政策，把马来西亚分为一等、二等公正。如果我们要赢取政权，协助拿督斯里安华成为我们的首相，民主行动党党员必须团结起来，争取更干净、自由及公平的选举。
让我与大家分享一名中产阶级马来妇女的看法，她非常关注我国的贪污、教育素质的恶化、英文不好、像她的孩子那样没有政治联系的马来西亚人缺乏平等机会。她要我们不要忘记中产阶级- 这群人“比上不足，比下有余”，在这个不公平及贪污的社会，很难获得援助，却也很难好好生活及发迹。
我向她保证，一旦民联入主布城，我们不会忘记像她那样的中产阶级，我们会为她的孩子创造平等机会，继续成功兴旺。
林冠英