DAP STALWART Lim Kit Siang has slammed accusations that he was advocating violence in drawing comparisons between Malaysia and Sri Lanka following the political unrest that plagued the latter country in recent weeks.
This came after Datuk Seri Najib Razak had accused the Iskandar Puteri MP of inciting the public by questioning whether Malaysia will suffer the same fate as Sri Lanka, with the former prime minister calling on the police to arrest Lim.
According to Lim, he was simply warning that Malaysia should learn from its Asian neighbour’s ongoing experience and prevent its political and socio-economic conditions from deteriorating.
Lim also said that he had changed the heading of the statement in question which was initially titled “Will the houses of the prime minister and ministers of Malaysia be set on fire by angry protesters as happened in Sri Lanka last week?” after being advised by his political secretary Syahredzan Johan who is also a lawyer.
“I had no objection to changing the heading as my intention was not to incite any unrest, but to warn of the dangers of allowing the political and socio-economic conditions to deteriorate, like what happened in Sri Lanka for over half a century,” he clarified in a statement today.
“I expected opportunists to twist and distort the meaning and purpose of my statement as one of incitement, but I had not expected a former prime minister to head the charge.”
Yesterday, Najib said that Lim, who recently retired from active politics, should not issue such statements and that Lim should enjoy life as a retiree instead.
Lim, however, retorted that he had retired from “competitive politics” but not from politics as a whole. – May 20, 2022
