In a month’s time on March 18, 2017 DAP will be celebrating our 51st anniversary since the registration of the party on 18th March 1966.

DAP is today solely because of the contributions, sacrifices and selflessness of veteran DAP leaders and members of the past half a century, and today we gather here to pay tribute to these DAP veterans in Johor, which has now been transformed from a political back-water state into a front-line state for the 14th General Elections, which will decide not only who will run Johor state government but also the Federal Government for the next five years after the 14th General Elections, which appears likely to be held this year.

The following tables showing the vote-share obtained by the various political parties from the 1969 to 2013 General Elections give an idea of how the Barisan Nasional, which had won as high as 77.3% of the total votes cast in the state in 1978 GE and fallen to 53.9% in the 2013 GE, is now fighting a life-and-death struggle to retain power in the Johor State Government in the 14GE.

Johor Party Vote Share GE1969 to GE2013
click to enlarge

The greatest irony of the forthcoming General Election is that UMNO/Barisan Nasional are now praying and hoping that PAS will be their saviour and help them to secure their hold on Johor State and Federal power by co-operating with PAS.

UMNO/BN may get their wishes as the PAS President, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang has declared that Malaysia being regarded world-wide as a “global kleptocracy” because of the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal is not as important as ensuring that a Muslim, Datuk Seri Najib Razak remains as Prime Minister.

This is why the UMNO/BN coalition and Cabinet have sanctioned the PAS rally on RUU355 later today, as by the principle of collective responsibility, no Cabinet Minister would be attending the PAS rally without such a sanction, whether explicitly or implicitly.

Even the most politically illiterate would not believe that the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom would be attending the PAS rally on RUU355 in his personal capacity.

If Jamil Khir is attending in his personal and not Ministerial capacity, then ask him to announce his resignation from the Cabinet at the rally; and to return to the Cabinet when his attendance at the PAS rally has the approval of all Barisan Nasional parties!

DAP’s contribution in the past half a century is second to none in the battle for democracy, justice, equality and for a united multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious nation in Malaysia.

In the past 50 years, many DAP leaders, members and supporters had paid a heavy price for their political beliefs, losing their personal liberties when detained without trial or prosecuted in the courts on politically trumped-up charges, or victimised in a large variety of ways.

In the past half a century, there had been at least four major “Black Ops” campaign to destroy the DAP by breaking and buying of DAP leaders, members and supporters.

The first major “Black Ops” campaign to destroy the DAP was after the DAP’s success in the 1969 general elections – the first GE contested by the DAP. In fact the UMNO/BN leaders and their controlled media were so confident about the “Black Ops” campaign that they publicly announced at the time in the early 70s that DAP “telah masuk kubur”.

I was detained under the Internal Security Act, the party’s secretary-general was pressured to resign from his post, Fan Yew Teng was charged with sedition and although we won 13 parliamentary seats and 31 State Assembly seats in the 1969 GE, DAP lost 4 of its 13 MPs and 11 of its 31 State Assemblymen (one became a MCA Minister and another a many-term MCA State Executive Councillor) from expulsions, defections and betrayals indicative of the success and severity of the first “Black Ops” campaign against the DAP.

In the second “Black Ops” campaign against the DAP from 1974-1978, Sdr. P. Patto and I were charged under the Official Secrets Act, Datuk Chian Heng Kai and Chan Kok Kit were detained under the ISA for four years and nine months while the campaign to induce or intimidate DAP elected representatives to betray or defect from the party continued apace although with lesser success.

The third “Black Ops” campaign against the DAP from 1978 – 1982 orchestrated the defection of two DAP MPs and several DAP Assemblymen, creating quite an upheaval in the party, where I was demonised as “anti-Chinese educated”.

The climax of the the fourth “Black Ops” campaign from 1982 to 2000 was the mass ISA arrests under Operation Lalang in October 1987, where DAP national and state leaders fell victims in the dragnet, with seven DAP MPs formally detained in Kamunting Detention Centre – namely Karpal Singh, P. Patto, Tan Seng Giaw, Lau Dak Kee, V. David, Lim Guan Eng and myself. Guan Eng and I were among the first DAP leaders to be arrested but we were both the last two to be released in April 1989. After his ISA release, Guan Eng was subsequently jailed in Kajang Prisons and disqualified as an MP and disenfranchised of his civil rights for five years after imprisonment for defending the rights, dignity and honour of a underaged Malay Muslim girl.

After a lapse of more than a decade, we now an a very ambitious and highly-funded “Black Ops” using the triple politics of fear, politics of hate and politics of lies, to destroy the DAP.

After the murder of DAP aide Teoh Beng Hock who “fell” to his death at MACC headquarters in Selangor, DAP Secretary-General and Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng is being prosecuted for corruption.

Just as the grit, commitment and stamina of DAP members for a just, democratic and progressive Malaysia had defeated four major “Black Ops” to destroy the DAP in past half a century, the most ambitious “Black Ops” campaign underway against DAP will also fail.

Suspicions as to whether the resignation of one DAP MP and three State Assemblymen in Malacca were connected to this ambitious “Black Ops” to destroy the DAP were caused by two factors:

Firstly, their ferocious attacks that DAP and I have deviated and betrayed the DAP’s founding principles and objectives. If DAP and I have deviated or betrayed the DAP’s founding principles and objectives, then both DAP and I do not deserve support. But my ground visit to Malacca last Tuesday to meet with the people in markets, shops and on the streets showed that they still support DAP although they regret the convulsions in the party.

Secondly, their apology for asking the voters in the 13 GE to support PAS candidates which was immediately used by MCA and Gerakan leaders and propagandists to attack the DAP. Was this planned or accidental?

I note that Sim Tong Hin had said in yesterday’s paper that it would appear that the DAP leadership would not welcome their return to DAP.

I have helped Sim twice, the first time before the 1986 general election and the second time in the 2013 GE when he stood as an independent candidate for a state assembly seat although DAP had fielded him as a parliamentary candidate.

I am prepared to help him a third time if he want to re-apply to return to the DAP, to personally take up his re-application to the DAP Central Executive Committee although I cannot guarantee what would be the outcome.

However, he would first have to withdraw and apologise for his baseless allegations against the DAP and DAP leaders for having deviated or betrayed the DAP’s founding principles and objectives, as well as apologise and withdraw his apology for asking the voters to support PAS candidates in the 2013 GE, as the DAP stand in calling for voter support for all Pakatan Rakyat candidates in 2013 GE was right and proper as all PR parties had agreed to a Common Policy Framework which was violated the PAS leadership after the 13GE.

[Speech at the DAP Johore State lunch in Yong Peng to pay tribute to veteran DAP members in the state on Saturday, 18th February 2017 at 12 noon]