We are gathered here tonight to remember Sdr. Lau Dak Kee, the best grassroots DAP leader in the first four decades of the DAP struggle for the achievement of the Malaysian Dream.

Dak Kee’s political struggle was distinguished by his unswerving loyalty, commitment and stamina to the ideals of justice, freedom and national unity – the core principles and ideals of the DAP’s political objective.

Dak Kee underwent three great tests when the DAP was quite “down and out” in the doldrums and emerged with flying colours.

The first test was from 1969 to 1974, when the DAP underwent great trials and tribulations, losing four of the 13 MPs and 11 out of the 31 State Assemblymen elected in the 1969 general elections, as a result of the pincer onslaughts of intimidation and inducement on the DAP elected representatives to betray the party.

Many were pessimistic that the DAP could survive the ferocious and systematic political offensives focussed on the DAP, with one top government leader so confident that he declared in 1972 that the DAP was already one foot in the grave. Read the rest of this entry »