Some of the candidates would be announced in the next 48 hours but the final list will probably be known only on nomination day or on its eve.
Some of the DAP MPs and State Assemblymen before dissolution would go back to their old constituencies to defend their seats and they include DAP Deputy National Chairman Karpal Singh, who will again contest in Jelutong and DAP National Vice Chairman Dr. Tan Seng Giaw, who will recontest in Kepong.
DAP will be fielding at least three well-known NGO personalities as candidates, marking the new millennium as a new era of coalition politics involving political parties and NGOs to bring about a vibrant civil society as a pillar of a just and democratic Malaysia.
All DAP Parliamentary and State Assembly candidates must realise that the tenth general election is historic and unique in presenting the first political opportunity in the nation’s 42-year history to break the Barisan Nasional two-thirds parliamentary majority and political hegemony.
However, such a historic opportunity could be lost if the Barisan Nasional succeeds in making the general election the "dirtiest" in the nation’s history, confusing, misleading and scaring the people into voting for the Barisan Nasional by their four "trump cards" that the election is about the establishment of an Islamic State, another May 13, no economic recovery, development or prosperity, and the toppling of Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad as Prime Minister.
All DAP Parliamentary and State Assembly candidates must be fully conscious that the DAP can either achieve unprecedented victory of bettering our best electoral result in 1986 or suffer unprecedented defeat of being completely wiped out.
(18/11/99)