(Klang, Sunday): Recently, there have been questioning as to why an opposition party like the DAP has embraced Information Technology, as if the DAP has seriously violated party principles and objectives of an opposition party.
Those who raise these questions fail to realise that the DAP is first and foremost a political party with our vision of the society and nation we want to see created in Malaysia.
The DAP was never formed to be an Opposition party for ever, or to be an Opposition for the sake of Opposition.
When the DAP was formed three decades ago in 1966, our first and primary objective was not to be an Opposition party, but to espouse the cause of a Malaysian Malaysia where all citizens, regardless of race, language, religion or culture have an equal stake in the country.
Our goal was to achieve the full national recognition that Malaysia is a multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious nation where the nation-building policy must be one of integration and not assimilation.
For the past three decades, DAP leaders struggled and sacrificed their personal liberties not to be an Opposition for the sake of an Opposition, but to fight for these fundamental nation-building objectives of the DAP.
In the past 30 years, several DAP leaders have forsaken these political principles and defected to the Barisan Nasional, but the DAP as a party had remained true to our political principles to work for an united, multi-racial, equal, just and prosperous Malaysia.
The DAP’s political struggle and sacrifices for the past three decades had not been in vain, for we have seen "minor liberalisation" in areas of language, education and culture - where even the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad had openly conceded that the previous nation-building policy of assimilation was doomed to failure and that only the policy of integration is appropriate for Malaysia.
This does not mean however that the DAP is preparing to join the Barisan Nasional. Furthermore, what DAP wants is not just "minor liberalisation" but "full liberalisation" and this remains our goal.
It is because the DAP has our own ideals of what a Malaysia should be that we are prepared to support and even praise the Barisan Nasional Government where it has done right and would not hesitate to criticise and even condemn where it has done wrong.
Despite certain misconceptions, the DAP leadership had never believed that we should oppose regardless of whether the government has merits or demerits in any matter.
This applies to our approach to the new subject of Information Technology (IT). The DAP’s first and primary concern has always been the best interest of the nation, people and future generations.
Many people still do not understand the critical importance of IT to our people and nation, as it would determine whether we, whether as individuals, communities, people or nation would be in the ranks of the developed and prosperous or would be relegated to the poor and undeveloped.
In fact, I dare say that Information Technology (IT) and a Knowledge Society will be the critical determinants as to whether the Vision 2020 objective of Malaysia becoming a fully developed nation is a success or failure.
The Government has realised that under the current industrial approach, Malaysia would not be able to achieve fully-developed nation status by 2020 and that an Information Age approach, leapfrogging Malaysia from an industrial society into an information society, is the only way to achieve fully-developed nation status as envisaged in Vision 2020 - and maybe even before the year 2020.
In the new millennium, a nation which is "Information-poor" will be a poor nation in every sense of the word and individuals who are computer-illiterate will become the new underclass of the handicapped and disadvantaged.
Realising the critical importance of IT to the future of Malaysia, whether as a people or as a nation, and the lack of national awareness of this issue, can the DAP choose the irresponsible option of pandering to ignorance by opposing efforts to popularise IT-awareness and IT-usage among the people?
As part of the DAP’s Party Reform programme to "rethink party policies, strategies and approaches", the DAP leadership has decided to play a leading role to help ensure that Malaysia can be in the front rank of "Information-rich" nations in the new millennium.
This is why In the past two years, one of my concerns has been how we can assure our future as a nation, our competitiveness, prosperity and place in the world which is making the transition to the Digital Era and this is why I had repeatedly called for a nation-wide "IT For All" campaign to promote IT-literacy with the twin objective to ensure:
There is a view that the DAP had done a lot, even too much, to popularise IT-consciousness and use among Malaysians. I disagree. What the DAP has done are only the first few steps of a long journey which the DAP must take to promote IT-consciousness, computer-literacy and computer-fluency among Malaysians.
This is why the DAP Central Executive Committee has formed a DAP IT Committee to carry out the national mission of helping to ensure that Malaysia and the people can achieve world-class IT standards and I will take personal interest to ensure that the DAP IT Committee does not rest on its laurels but must quadruple its efforts on what it has done so far.
The DAP IT Committee must not only carry out a programme inside the party to ensure that DAP leaders, cadres and members can set the national example in computer-literacy and computer-fluency, but also a national programme to promote computer-literacy and computer-fluency among the people as a whole.
(27/4/97)