Continuing the cause for multiracialism

This was my maiden speech made during the DAP Selangor State Convention 2015

For years, DAP has faced numerous and unprecedented challenges that no other parties in Malaysia has faced. One of which is the effective demonization by the evil Barisan Nasional government who controls the mainstream media against our party

In their continued & outdated divide and rule strategy, the Barisan Nasional government has effectively painted the DAP as a Chinese dominant party, out to take power from the Malays. This is even when despite the party’s best efforts, and clear evidences to the contrary that DAP do not just fight for a single race, but all races, UMNO has spewed these lies, and continue to repeat these lies as their means to cling on to power

As a result, these has impeded DAP’s efforts to attract more talents & members from non-conventional communities to join the party. In fact, even when talents such as Dyana Sofya or Sepura Othman joined us, who both believes in DAP’s cause to unite Malaysians, they have been attacked & vilified for betraying the their own community.

And we are trapped in this undeserving situation, where on one hand we are trying to attract talents from all communities to build a multiracial party to achieve our dreams in uniting Malaysia. But on the other hand, due to lies and propagandas by UMNO, talents shy away from DAP for fear of reprise from their own community. And this makes our tasks of achieving our dreams much harder.

So how do we break and get out of this? How do we continue to forge forward so that the distant dream will stop being a distant dream, and becomes a reality?

1.      Reaching out to urban voters

Selangor contains a large number of urban voters whom Barisan Nasional has abandoned. They are the ones who denied BN the popular vote in the last General Election. In addition, according to Department of Statistics, more than 7 million of the populations in Malaysia are between the age of 21 – 35. Young voters will make up almost half of the eligible voters in Malaysia. These are the tech savvy voters, who do not rely on traditional media for news source. And these groups of voters are disillusioned with the poor leadership of the ruling government.

If we can reach out to them, firstly to get more of them to register as voters, and at the same time, engage with them to canvass for support and recruit as members, these people will be our newest & best activists in forging a path for DAP.

2.      Recruiting & grooming new leaders from non-conventional communities, in particularly the Malays.

Rural voters are difficult to convince, especially when they have been relying on traditional media as their only source of information. Even at our years of best efforts, it took us some time to convince some of these rural voters to give DAP a vote of confidence.

However, we are seeing a change in this. The grooming of new and young leaders from across communities has started to help DAP to connect with the rural voters. If we can continue this more aggressively, these new & young leaders can help us to shed our image as a Chinese based party and convince the rural voters to vote for DAP.

In fact, Barisan Nasional’s recent mismanagement of the country, the 1MDB’s multi billon scandals, the toll hikes, GST implementation etc, has severely affected Malaysians across all communities, especially those who lives in the urban areas. Ask any man on the street, and you will not find anyone isn’t disillusioned with the current climate.

The wind of change has blown since year 2008, but it is not done just yet. It is actually easier now to convince the urban Malaysians to join our cause and become party members. And we must recognize this as an opportunity to reach out to them by offering DAP as a platform to voice up and speak against the ruling government.

So time has changed. Malaysia has changed, and other communities are beginning to see DAP as a party who does not just represent a single race, but all races as well. And only by attracting more urban non-Chinese talents into the party, where we can work together to convince the rural voters to vote for DAP.

Simply put, and I have to be direct in this, with the recruitment & grooming of the right Malay talents who believes in the party’s causes and values, it will make DAP’s work of convincing the rural communities much easier. Only by showing to all Malaysians that DAP is represented by talents in all communities, can we truly call ourselves a multiracial party.

Only then, with a common goal, values and principles can DAP truly unite Malaysians as a whole and not one where races are merely tolerant to each other, but where Malaysians of all races accepts & embraces each other with open arms as brothers and sisters.

Before I end today, I’d like to share a quote from Sdr. Lim Kit Siang, who wrote a letter to Dr.Chen Man Hin in 1969. He said:

“Malaysia’s survival as a united nation depends to a large extent on the will and stamina of our movement and cause for a multiracial Malaysia. If we remain firm and dedicated to the cause of multiracialism, we may play a critical role which decides if Malaysia splinters in a welter of racial bloodbath, or holds together as a unitedpeople and nation.

Our way ahead will be an ardous one, but when other movements in other ages, countries and climes can overcome even greater and more challenging problems, I do not see why we ourselves cannot have a good chance of success.

Therefore, it is our duty, the duty of every one of our members, branch, state and national leaders, elected representatives to march in the frontline of the struggle to spread the word of a multiracial Malaysia to Malaysians of all races, in both the urban and rural areas.

We cannot of course guarantee that the cause of multiracialism will triumph in Malaysia, but we can guarantee that if the cause of multiracialism fails, Malaysia shall perish!”

Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, if in the next two years, elected representatives and each one of us as delegates and members, who are leaders in your own right,  can recruit more members from all communities and groom them into future leaders for the party in rural based constituencies, we will make a great stride in shackling & unseating the Barisan Nasional government.

Let us not shirk from our responsibility and duty to our nation, ourselves & our children. Let us all reach out to people across all communities, and build a multiracial DAP for a better and united Malaysia.

Thank you.