Lim Kit Siang’s never ending struggle

 

From Lim Teck Ghee

Few among Malaysia’s politicians have stirred as much controversy or aroused as much strong feeling as Lim Kit Siang. This is due not just to his political longevity but mainly because of the issues and political positions he has taken since his debut in the country’s political life.

From the time he emerged in 1966 as national organising secretary of the Democratic Action Party (DAP) until today, Kit, as he is known to colleagues from both sides of the political fence, has been a central character in the country’s political turbulence.

He has experienced the full range of twists and turns that comprise the Malaysian political track: the May 13 racial riots; the post-1969 period of emergency rule and return to a new restricted political normalcy with prohibitions against subjects deemed sensitive and “seditious”; the period of the 1980’s and crackdown on civil liberties and democratic rights in Operation Lalang which saw the arrest and detention of over 100 activists, politicians, intellectuals, students, and others under the Internal Security Act (ISA); the recent spell of public disenchantment with Barisan Nasional rule and renewed opposition challenge to heightened mis-governance and manipulation of religious and racial discord; the brief toppling of the BN from its over 50 years of power monopoly and, most recently, BN’s return to power in partnership with others, as well as new setbacks to the DAP, some stemming from its own doing.

Throughout this period Kit has led, and is the dominant figure of, a party whose manifesto remains in sharp and often diametrical contrast to that of the BN government.

Following its establishment after the break-up of the merger between Malaysia and Singapore, at the first DAP National Congress held in Setapak, Kuala Lumpur on July 29,1967, the DAP declared itself to be “irrevocably committed to the ideal of a free, democratic and socialist Malaysia, based on the principles of racial and religious equality, social and economic justice, and founded on the institution of parliamentary democracy”.

The pursuit of racial and religious equality for Malaysians embedded in the party’s call for a Malaysian Malaysia has been likened by cynical observers and those who regard themselves as “pragmatic” analysts as akin to a death wish or an impossible dream.

This is because in a country with a Malay Muslim majority population, it is conventional wisdom that a party fighting for the equal rights of Malaysians – especially with the advent of the New Economic Policy which has compartmentalised and polarised the country’s people more emphatically into racial categories – is doomed to failure or would, at best, have a marginal position in the country’s political arena.

In 1970, when the DAP was at its infancy, the Bumiputera proportion of the nation’s population already stood at 56% while the Chinese accounted for 34% and Indians 9%. It was already apparent that a slower rate of population growth would further reduce the electoral clout of the non-Malay communities.

Since then, the arrival of new migrants from Indonesia and Southern Philippines by the millions has added to Malay demographic advantage and shrunk the electoral clout of the non-Malay population.

An “equal rights” party would inevitably come into direct conflict with Umno, the nation’s leading party since winning independence, and – after the ousting of the first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman in 1970 – a party led by a succession of increasingly authoritarian leaders intent on advancing Malay interests and dominance in every sphere of life.

Beginning with Abdul Razak Hussein, and continuing, albeit at a slower pace, with the nation’s third prime minister Hussein Onn, and then accelerating again during the long period of Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s term in office, the country’s Malay and rural electorate have been the targets of an Umno-driven pummelling of the DAP and repeated efforts by the dominant party in the BN – drawing on the services of a partisan Umno supportive civil service – to bring the opposition party to heel, if not to destroy it for opposing the pro-Malay policies that have dominated the country’s socio-economic and political life since May 1969.

TO BE CONTINUED

 - FMT

Lim Teck Ghee is a public policy analyst

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.