Speech by Sdr Ngeh Koo Ham, DAP Perak Chairman at the DAP Perak 16th Annual Convention at Ritz Garden Hotel, Ipoh on 9th October 2011 at 10.00 am
‘We Can. We Must. We Will.’
1. We can take back State authority in Perak and also to take Putrajaya.
Immediately after BN’s grab of power in Perak on 6th Feb 2009, a survey conducted showed that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) would be able to win 40 out of the 59 State Assembly seats in Perak had the State election been held then. There was outrage throughout the State and nation wide. The outrage has subsided but a survey conducted in July this year showed that PR can still win 33 out of the 59 seats if election is called.
We can take back State authority with the support of the people of Perak.
We must however, not be complacent. PR has 8 seats where we won in 2008 with less than 1,000 votes. On the other hand, we can also win big as BN has 10 seats which they won by less than 1000 votes (3 of which won by less than a 100 votes). We can win 41 seats to form a very stable government if these seats fall into our hands. PR won 31 seats in 2008. We can do it. Let’s work hard to achieve it for the people.
In every disaster, there is a silver lining. In every crisis there is opportunity. The grab of power by BN in Perak will probably be proven to be instrumental to the defeat of BN at the Federal level in the coming general elections. The people will be able to see the true self of the chief architect in the Perak power grab, Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak. They will not fall for his slogans. They will not give him the chance people normally do when a new Prime Minister comes to office. Similarly Dato’ Seri Zambry Bin Abdul Kadir will not have the benefit of newly assuming office as the new Menteri Besar. The people see him through and through. His thousands of banners and billboards (the largest number in the history of Perak) trying to portray himself in good light will not be able to deceive the people.
The people also see the true colours of Parti Gerakan, MCA and MIC who participated and endorsed the power grab. In every democratic country, from USA to UK to Japan, we see Prime Minister, Ministers and even police chiefs bow apologically in shame and resign from their posts if there is a scandal or failure on their part even though they were legitimately elected or appointed.
Only in Perak and in Malaysia, we see Najib and Zambry after grabbing power trumpeted their success, putting up banners and billboards to promote themselves.
2. We Must
We must rectify the situation. We must restore morality, integrity, dignity and righteousness to this beloved nation of Malaysia. If we allowed the grab of power in Perak to go unpunished, we are sending a message to our children and our children’s children that robbing and stealing are permissible so long as we achieve our purpose. A nation without morality, integrity, dignity and righteousness is doomed to fail.
We must save our nation from BN’s corruption, abuse of power and mismanagement which will eventually lead us to bankruptcy. We must strengthen the democratic institutions in our country. We must ensure transparency, good governance and democratic principles and values are upheld.
We must ensure that which has happened to the Perak State Assembly must never be allowed to occur again. We must restore the Perak State Assembly to its rightful place. We must make right the Perak crisis court cases where judges do not follow the law.
Under the impression that he is secured with the police on his side and immune from the law, Zambry has approved 60,561.33 acres of industrial/agricultural land at an average price of RM375 per acre since the grab of power. Despite repeated demands, he has refused to disclose the names of the receipients. We can only assume that most of these lands were approved to his or BN cronies. If Zambry and his or BN’s cronies were to benefit RM20,000-00 per’s acre from these approvals, they would have made a staggering RM1.2 billion far exceeding the Perak State Government’s annual budget! We must demand transparency.
Prime Minister Tun Hussein Onn expressed his worry when our nation was indebted in the sum of RM20.0 billion. Tun Mahathir has allowed it to balloon to RM238.3 billion when he left office in 2003. Tun Abdullah Badawi allowed it to grow to RM313 billion.
Today our nation is indebted to the tune of RM455 billion about 53.8% of our GDP. Argentina became a bankrupt nation when its national debt reached US95 billion (RM285 billion). Many more nations in Europe are facing bankruptcy. Malaysians must not think that our nation can never be bankrupt. Each Malaysian is now indebted about RM16,000-00 or RM80,000-00 per family of 5 persons!
2012 Budget sees us in deficit of another RM51.2 billion. Estimated income is RM181.6 billion while the expenditure is RM232.8 billion. Repayment of debt for 2012 has reached RM20.45 billion.
Unless a debt is incurred in order to earn more money, every debt incurred by us is to use up the money belonging to our future generations. We must let the people realize that the goodies given by BN during elections to cover up their excesses and corruption only add on to their sorrows to come. We do not want our children to curse us for the sufferings they have to endure due to our failure to prevent BN from making our nation a bankrupt nation.
We Will
We will together with other Pakatan Rakyat parties work tirelessly to save this nation from possible bankruptcy. We will work to enhance the quality of education and the quality of our universities. We will restore, uphold and strengthened the democratic institutions of this country. We will make Malaysia a better place for all Malaysians. We will surmount the challenges ahead of us together. We together reaffirm that we can, we must and we will take back state authority in Perak and take power in Putrajaya.
We Can. We Must. We Will.
NGEH KOO HAM
DAP PERAK CHAIRMAN
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