Text of Prime Minister's Speech Given at a Mass
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1 TEXT OF PRIME MINISTER’S SPEECH GIVEN AT A MASS RALLY AT MALACCA FRIDAY, 27TH MARCH, 1964. To Malacca goes the distinction of having produced two finance ministers, Mr. Tan Siew Sin of Malaya and Dr. Goh Keng Swee of Singapore. They share one thing in common, the same grandfather. They are cousins. They are both thrifty souls. But here the similarity ends. Mr. Tan, descendant from the male line, inherited the family fortunes and is a multi-millionaire with a large fortune in rubber. Dr. Goh, an offspring from the female line, got nothing and worked his way in the world. Mr. Tan became director of many companies and subsequently ran the Finance Ministry of Malaya like he ran these companies prudently and economically to show the best dividend for the directors. Dr. Goh became a teacher in economics at Raffles College before the war, then a social research worker, winning a gold medal in London, a scholarship and a doctorate thereafter. As Finance Minister of Singapore, the policies that the pursued and the financial surplus he achieved reflected his harsher and more Spartan background. Mr. Tan, the man with the silver spoon, moved easily into high political positions in the wake of his father's reputation. Today he represents the rural lky/1964/lky0327.doc 2 Malay constituency of Malacca Tengah and so has found it unnecessary to learn to speak or write Chinese. However, he says he leads the Chinese in Malaysia. Dr. Goh from social research to trade unionism in government unions fought his way up in the political arena in Kreta Ayer, heart of Singapore's Chinatown. In the process, he learned about "spacemen" i.e. the people who hire a little space in the cubicles of Chinatown for their bunks. He also learned their language and their problems. He belongs to the P.A.P. which does not claim to lead the Chinese in Malaysia. It claims that it can best lead the urban people of Malaysia of all races. Two different social consciences The divergent careers of two cousins from Malacca illustrate in a vivid way the different approaches to the problems of Malaysia. It is reflected in the social conscience or absence of it in the financial policies of the two finance ministers. A simple illustration of this social conscience can be found in the attitudes of the two ministers towards the problems facing those who suffered as a result of Indonesian confrontation. lky/1964/lky0327.doc 3 In October, immediately after the economic confrontation began with a trade boycott of Indonesia against Singapore, Dr. Goh announced a relief scheme to cushion the harsh blow of unemployment for those engaged in the Indonesian trade -- seamen, rubber packers, workers in rattan factories and so on. They were to be paid two-thirds of their salaries for six months, one-third by the government and one-third by the employers. The employers taking the cue from the Finance Minister responded. Legislation was also passed to enable the Finance Ministry to direct new industries to employ men who have become unemployed as a result of confrontation and who have the skills for work required in these new industries. There are now about 4,000 workers drawing about $2 million a month, $1 million from the government and $1 million from the employers. One thousand have already found alternative employment and the rest will slowly find alternative jobs. Penang has one-fifth of Singapore's entrepot trade and confrontation hit her with the same severity. There must be at least 1,000 unemployed people in Penang as a result of confrontation. They are the responsibility of Mr. Tan Siew Sin. lky/1964/lky0327.doc 4 The Socialist Front in Penang have quite callously exploited the hardships of these unemployed but have done nothing for them. Unfortunately, neither has Mr. Tan Siew Sin, in spite of the healthy foreign balances he proudly spoke of yesterday. This has nothing to do with socialism or capitalism. This is a simple matter of social conscience. Perhaps Dr.Goh's years of research into urban poverty in Singapore and the drudgery of canvassing up and down the tenements in Kreta Ayer meeting "spacemen" accounted for the two different responses of the cousins. Lower cost, higher efficiency and more effective administration The choice before the people of Malaya in this election and indeed before the people of Malaysia, is typified by the two different types of leaders Malacca has produced. One, with a vested interest of wealth and position of power, talks about building a "property-owing democracy" and building a large middle class. These were the slogans of the British Conservative Party in the 1950's, a policy that enabled them to remain in office for ten years in a highly developed industrialised society. Whether this policy adopted in the 1960s by Mr. Tan will have similarly happy results is a different matter. lky/1964/lky0327.doc 5 Malaya and Malaysia are not industrialised. They are under-developed, have only a sprinkling of middle-class professional men, a thin layer of a middle- class of clerks and teachers, and a mass of poor people who are unskilled, semi- literate with poorly paid jobs largely in agriculture, plantations and mining. The average per capita national income is $800 per annum or $65 per month, Tan Siew Sin's large middle class. The choice before Malacca is this contrast, between an M.C.A. type of government that talks of building a property-owning democracy, of which the Wolferstan housing scheme in Malacca is an illustrious example, 143 units at $14,000 per unit. The alternative is Singapore's low cost housing at $4,000 per unit, with a flat every 45 minutes. Both Malacca and Singapore had water shortages last year. Singapore started rationing several months earlier than Malacca with the result that the taps never went dry and never produced salt water. Cholera broke out in Malacca last year. No precautions were taken and no vaccine came in for weeks after the outbreak. Singapore started preventive lky/1964/lky0327.doc 6 inoculation even before the outbreak of cholera reached her and when it did only one case happened in the first epidemic and this was scorched. There is no difference between the ability of the people of Malacca who were responsible for the administrative efficiency in Singapore. The only difference lies in the quality and direction of the political leadership. Our candidate, Mr. Chua Sian Chin, is born and bred in Malacca. A vote for him is a vote for this honest and effective leadership typified by one of the finance ministers from Malacca, Dr. Goh Keng Swee. Socialist Front-- dilemma of an untenable international Communist line This time the alternative to the M.C.A. includes more than just the Socialist Front or the Malayan Party . With the leader of the Malayan Party turning into one of M.C.A.'s new faces on the eve of elections, the Socialist Front would have been the sole beneficiary of the protest votes. The P.A.P. have one great advantage over the Communist united front. We can afford to be practical as we are not saddled with untenable policies set by some international Communist group. The Socialist Front have to be anti- lky/1964/lky0327.doc 7 Malaysia, and hence pro-Indonesia, because Indonesia is the originator of the anti-Malaysia campaign. They are trying to win Chinese votes but they by their anti-Malaysia policy are identified with the anti-Chinese policy of Indonesia. They know that without the military bases in Singapore and in Malacca like Terendak Camp, Malaysia would be swallowed up by confrontation. But yet, the international Communist line lays down that they should denounce military bases and troops and demand their evacuation. Like the Naval Base in Singapore, the closing down of Terendak Camp would mean the end of several thousand workers -- amahs, drivers, shop-keepers, cleaners, gardeners and a whole host of other civilian workers who make a living out of serving the needs of the military people in Terendak Camp. The Socialist Front has by its strident opposition to Malaysia encouraged Soekarno into confrontation. They have created this situation where more and more money has to be spent on defence, leaving less for economic development and social services. This is their contribution to the social revolution of Malaysia. Winds of change Malacca, like Penang or Seremban, wants the winds of change to start. What Malaysia needs is a finance minister with a heightened social conscience, lky/1964/lky0327.doc 8 not one who glibly repeats the British Conservative party's slogan of building a property owning democracy and large middle-class in a population whose average income per capita is about $65 per month, or about one-tenth that of Britain. What Malaysia needs is a practical man who will provide the people who earn $65 per month with some of the social amenities of a modern civilized society paid for more by the "haves" in the States in order to ease the burden of life, free school books for the poor, scholarships in abundance for the bright children, free clinics and hospitals, free social amenities for recreation in community centres, better roads, more and free water supplies, electricity, drainage and anti-flood projects, housing and social welfare. All these things make for a democracy of reasonably social standards and social services for all, not a democracy of property-owners of the few. Policy of social conscience On 25th April, if Malacca joins Kuala Lumpur and the other main towns to return the 9 P.A.P.