This was before the word "reformasi" was ever used and before former Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was sacked from government and the ruling party, tried and convicted by the media in utter disregard of the fundamental principle that a person is innocent until proven guilty, and treated as a common criminal in the way he was arrested and assaulted while in police custody with a "black eye" for the world to see when he was brought to court ten days later.
In the initial period of Anwar’s sacking, the country was horrified that the injustice of the Lim Guan Eng case could so swiftly be followed by the injustice of the Anwar Ibrahim case - strengthening nation-wide conviction that there is a need for far-reaching changes to bring about justice, freedom, democracy and good governance in Malaysia.
However, government propagandists and Barisan Nasional parties like MCA and Gerakan have been working doubly hard to arouse fears among the non-Malay community that the national mood for reforms in general, and "reformasi" as specifically advocated by the pro-Anwar forces, would lead to racial conflict like the Indonesian street violence and a repetition of the May 13 racial riots.
It is most irresponsible for anyone to equate the growing demands of Malaysians for political change and reforms with racial conflict, whether the Indonesian street violence or repetition of the May 13 riots of 1969.
We must expose and denounce suggestions, for instance, that if the DAP makes considerably headway in the next general elections, as doubling its parliamentary strength from nine parliamentary seats in the 1995 general election results to 18 parliamentary seats in the next general elections, there could be racial conflicts and May 13 riots.
In actual fact, in the 1986 general elections, the DAP won as many as 24 Parliamentary seats and there were no racial tension or conflict whatsoever - and there is no reason why there should be any racial tension, let alone racial conflicts, even if the DAP wins 30 to 40 seats in the next general elections.
This is because Malaysia is not Indonesia, and the DAP does not want any racial tension or conflicts in Malaysia!
I would therefore call on the fear-mongers who are trying to raise the spectre of May 13 riots to cease and desist as they would be showing their true "anti-national" colours and doing the greatest disservice to Malaysian nation-building.
Recently, currency trader George Soros called for the ouster of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. The DAP made it very clear in Parliament last year when some United States Congressmen had called for the resignation of Mahathir as Prime Minister that this is a decision which is to be made solely by Malaysians, and that it is no business of any foreign power or foreigner.
George Soros is entitled to his views about Mahathir but he has no right to decide or intervene in the matter as only Malaysians can decide on whether Mahathir should step down as Prime Minister of Malaysia.
There is no doubt however that Malaysia is going through the greatest political crisis in the nation’s history, and that Mahathir is facing the greatest test as to his political leadership, legitimacy and credibility in his 17-year-tenure as Prime Minister.
DAP calls for the immediate dissolution of Parliament and the holding of general elections to resolve the worst political crisis in Malaysian nation by returning the mandate to the people to decide on Malaysia’s political future and direction.
(7/12/98)