Lim Keng Yaik’s Contributions & Legacy, as expounded in his presidential speeches delivered at the various National Delegates’ Conferences (NDC)
Dr Lim Keng Yaik joined Gerakan in 1973, and seven (7) years later, he was elected the National President of the Party in the delegates’ conference held in Port Dickson in 1980.
From 1981 onwards, Dr Lim delivered his policy speeches to the various delegates’ conferences. While originally unintentional, Dr Lim’s NDC speeches for the past 26 years recorded, in details, the many aspects of Gerakan under his leadership.
Recorded in his speeches would be his proposed program and plan for the party, his guidance, expectation and advices to the party members, as well as his views and opinions on the various developments of Malaysian politics.
His contributions to Gerakan, in particular, could be identified if we made comparisons on the contents of his speeches of his earlier years as the party President to those of the later years.
This is the first of a series of booklets on Dr Lim Keng Yaik’s 26 Years as Gerakan president. It focuses on the contributions made by Dr Lim Keng Yaik to build up Gerakan, the party he led for 26 years. It’s hoped that the small booklet will remind party members, especially the younger generation, on the sacrifices of the veterans, and that future party members will be inspired to carry on the torch of the party’s struggle.
We dissected the president’s speeches and classified them into various categories, and in this booklet, the focus is on his contributions and legacy, which, we should admit, is in no way comprehensive and exhaustive. As all members who had gone through the thicks and thins with the president, knew very well that many more of his contributions were unable to find a place in the speeches he delivered.
The relevant parts of the speeches have been organized into six (6) sections as follows:
- On Expanding and Strengthening Party Organisation;
- On Building Up the Party Building: Program, Projects & Activities of the Party
- On Party Leaders and Members
- On the Youth and Women’s Wings
- On Gerakan’s political ideology, vision and mission
- On Re-inventing Gerakan
On Expanding and Strengthening Party Organisation
When Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia was formed in 1968, much of its strength actually came from the central state of Selangor (then inclusive of Kuala
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