It is a special privilege to welcome Datuk Yeop Adlan Che Rose as a DAP member, as it is a home-coming, as his father Che Rose bin Haji Abdullah was the DAP candidate in the first by-election after the 1974 General Election in the Alor Pongsu constituency in Perak state assembly on 18th December 1974.

The Alor Pongsu by-election 43 years ago is testimony that right from the beginning of DAP’s formation 52 years ago, DAP had never regarded itself as a Chinese or non-Malay party, never an anti-Malay and anti-Islam party, but a party for all races and religions in the country.

DAP contested the rural Alor Pongsu by-election not because we expected to win, but part of a long-term reach-out by the party to all Malaysians and regions with the DAP message for national unity, justice, freedom, development and good governance for all.

When I visited Bagan Serai (the centre of the Alor Pongsu constituency) in December 2015, I was pleasantly surprised by an old photograph taken when I visited Bagan Serai at the end of 1970, which was shortly after I was released from the first Internal Security Act (ISA) detention. Read the rest of this entry »