Speech at the Wilayah DAP Convention

Terima kasih tuan ketua pengerusi. YB-YB, saudara-saudari, selamat petang. Terima kasih kerana memberi peluang kepada saya untuk berucap hari ini.

各为亲爱的同胞们，大家好！Thank you for this opportunity to speak today.

In the lead up to the General Election, there is still so much, to do but so little time. There is good news: Najib is panicking. He doesn’t dare call the elections because he knows he’s in for a fight and he will lose! It seems like the Prime Minister enjoys following the opposition. Just on Friday, he was asked who donated RM40 million to Umno in Sabah, and he didn’t want to say because “the opposition doesn’t disclose their donors either”. It is interesting to note that Barisan Nasional is keen to follow the lead of Pakatan Rakyat.

大选要来了，虽然我们有很多东西还没做，可是看起来我们有个很好的消息：纳吉 已经很紧张！因为他不敢这么快召开大选，如果他召开大选他会输 (shu1)! 依我看，我们亲爱的首相, 很喜欢, 模仿, 反对党。因为上个拜五，有人问他到底 (dao4di3)是谁捐了(juan4le) 四十亿马币, 给Sabah的Umno， 但是, 他不敢讲是谁捐的，因为反对党也没有说。我觉得反对党很厉害，对不对？

Saudara Zairil Khir Johari wrote a fantastic article in the Malaysian insider. Some of his points were that even though they called the Buku Jingga “useless”, the BN comes out with BR1M taken straight out of the proposal to aid to households earning below RM3000!  Also there is a Go-KL free bus, but this came 2 years after the DAP led Penang State government introduced the inner-city buses.  How about free mammograms for ladies? Who’s idea was that? The Selangor state government stated the initiative two years ago. This shows that Barisan Nasional is bankrupt of ideas, and all they can do is watch how Pakatan Rakyat runs the state governments. Well, the time for pretending is over! It is now or never this is the push and I truly believe we will capture Putrajaya at GE13!

Saudara Zairil Khir Johari telah menulis artikel yang hebat di dalam Malaysia Insider. Beliau berkata isu-isu seperti. Contohnnya, walaupun kerajaan Barisan Nasional menganggapkan Buku Jingga adalah buku yang tidak berguna, tetapi mereka boleh mecadangkan BR1M. Siapa punya cadangan? Kami punya!! 还有那个Go-KL 免费巴士。我觉得公共交通是很好的主意，可是槟成的行动党政府已经在两年前做了！国阵以精美新创意！他们就会看Pakatan Rakyat 做什么，然后他们就做什么！够了吧！我们有着一次机会，我们一定要努力， 听人民的话，在第13届的大选后，国阵被踢出局！

Let’s face it. Barisan Nasional is so found of building monuments. They have built Putrajaya, Cyberjaya, the Twin Towers, KLCC, and Iskandar. Najib loves his alphabet soup, NKRAs, ETP, GTP and so on and so forth. But when we look into these things, looks nice on the outside, but inside, there is so little substance! Tell me which road in Malaysia is flat? How many tolls do we have to pay just to get from point A to B? On the Kerinch link, we go through a traffic jam, get to the toll, and then? Smooth meh? No la! Have to join another traffic jam! Just yesterday, as I was driving on Old Klang Road, half the road was under water. Saudara Lim Lip Eng posted on his Facebook page that if the rain continues, half of Segambut will be under water. You mean to tell me that after 55 years, we don’t even have a proper drainage system? The SMART tunnel doesn’t seem to be smart at all!

Kerajaan BN sangat suka membina bangunaan yang lebih tinggi, yang lebih besar, yang paling mewah. Putrajaya, Cyberjaya, KLCC, Menara KL dan Iskandar, semuanya shiok Najib dia sendiri.

Beritahu saya jalan mana di Malaysia kita ini rata? Berapa banyak tol yang perlu kita bayar dari destinasi A ke B? Sebagai contoh, di Lingkaran Kerinchi, kita mengalami kesesakan lalu lintas hanya untuk melintasi satu tol dan seterusnya ke Lebuhraya Persekutuan dan mengalami kesesakan lalu lintas semula! Adakah dengan membayar tol akan memudahkan perjalanan kita?

Semalam semasa saya memandu di Jalan Klang Lama, setengah jalan banjir. Saudara Lim Lip Eng menulis di Facebook : jikalau hujan tidak berhenti, seluruh Segambut akan banjir. Saudara saudari, ini hanya membukti bahawa negara kita tidak mempunyai saliran perparitan yang bagus selama 55 tahun ini. Anda boleh tahan lagi tak? Boleh tahan lagi? Tak boleh lah!

However, winning the election is not enough to declare victory. The real work begins when we become the Federal Government, to tackle the crucial issues one by one and going back to the basics. Yes, corruption is a big issue, but we must really pound through the issues very close to the heart of the people. The real problems. The struggles faced on a daily basis. I’d just like to talk about two of them today. First there is very real problem of the cost of living, and secondly, empowering the younger generation and getting them to stand up and make their voice heard.

How much extra is in your pocket these days? It seems like no matter how hard we work, our wallets seem to be shrinking and shrinking. These days a fresh graduate doesn’t get more than RM2,000 a month, or RM2300 for a degree holder. Now think about this, minus EPF, minus rental, minus PTPTN loan repayment, minus car loan, minus Touch N’GO, minus food cost, minus phone bill, electricity bill and what is left? What is left??!! Less than nothing?!! 你们的钱包还有钱吗？有吗？已经没有。为什么呢？现在，毕业的学生的薪水是差不多两千多块。剪掉EPF, 租费, 汽车贷款，Touch N’ Go， 日常用品. 还剩下多少？一分也没有！

Hey, at least water is free in Selangor right? Well, how many of you have drunk water out of the tap lately? Do you dare? Most of us end up investing in our own personal filtration systems, because Syabas is incapable of supplying clean water! Furthermore, we are raking credit card debt like nobody’s business, food prices have increased dramatically, almost doubling the cost of feeding a family these days. How much do you pay for your Kway Teow and your Kopi-O today? In less than 10 years, not only would this country would have gone bankrupt, but the people would be left with no savings, no assets and a mountain of debt.

Najib knows this, but he still turns around to the people to ask us to change our spending habits. What spending is he talking about? If he wants to talk about spending habits, austerity needs to stop from the top! However I don’t think Rosmah would be too happy about it!

How can a Pakatan government reduce the cost of living? A few simple steps can be put in place but I’ll just talk about one. It is time to stop spoon feeding Proton and force them to be competitive. Get rid of the APs. Malaysia has the most expensive cars in the whole of the ASEAN region apart from Singapore. But at least in Singapore, they have a pretty good public transport system so you don’t have to worry about getting a car!

In Malaysia, when a student graduates, the first thing they look for is not a job, but a car! Car loans take up almost 40% the working income of a graduate. Getting rid of the APs not just free up their income but also to boost their spending power! This is very important in order for our economy to keep going, reduce debt and increase home ownership. With over 50% of the economy reliant on government linked companies, the power needs to shift back to the private sector in the interest of sustainable development. We can’t force wages to go up, but in a more competitive, market driven economy, along with equal opportunities for all Malaysians, this can be achieved.

Briefly, the second topic I wanted to raise today was to ensure that the youth of this nation is given an official platform to speak up. I’m talking about those between the ages of 21 to 35. Malaysia is a young country and in the last General Election, it was this group of people who gave Barisan Nasional the shock of their lives. It would be this group of people to push us over the line this General Election, and it would be this group of people which would be the future movers and shakers of this nation.

I urge the leaders of the DAP and Pakatan Rakyat as a whole not to neglect this crucial group of people. We want our young people to come back to Malaysia, don’t we? We don’t want to keep losing talented young Malaysians to the likes of Australia, the UK, Taiwan and Singapore! But young people are fickle. The values are different from the previous generation. In the world of social media, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, mindsets and perceptions are always changing. The moment they are ignored, they can quickly become apathetic. We have to continue engaging with them, getting them involved and get them moving! It is time to spot and identify more young leaders who can go and inspire the youth of this nation. If we fail to adapt, there is a danger that we ourselves would quickly no longer be relevant.

I’m proud to be a member of the DAP for the past four years. I want to commend our leaders and all the members for the continuous hard work. When I see the party growing from strength to strength, with a strong leadership, I know our country is in good hands. This is not the time for party politics, or division or disunity. This is exactly what Barisan Nasional wants and it makes good news headlines. DAP internal spat, DAP leadership fallout, Rivalry grows within the DAP and so on.

If the party puts together a united front, along with our partners PAS and PKR, nothing can stop us from making history in GE13. Let us work hard, stay united, continue to listen to the rakyat, keep praying and never ever lose hope.

This is only the beginning but this is our beginning! Hidup Rakyat! Mansuhkan Barisan Nasional!

Terima Kasih! Thank you and God bless you all. 谢谢大家，神祝福你们。