MALAYSIA must ensure that the Siti Mastura Mohamad fiasco is the last case of the national decline and that the country will leave such shameful episodes behind and rise up again to become a great world-class nation.
It is a national infamy and ignominy that we have a media illiterate not only as a Member of Parliament but one who has a PhD conferred on her!
If Siti Mastura has the basic common sense – which any decent educational system should impart upon all primary and secondary school students as well as those at university level – to check on the truth or falsity of the allegations that I am related to the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) leader Chin Peng or Singapore’s first premier Lee Kuan Yew, she will find plenty of material on the internet challenging the veracity of these allegations.
It is indeed most horrifying error that a PhD holder can change Lee Kuan Yew’s name to “Lim” Kuan Yew!
Leaving aside for the moment the defamatory element on me and those she had mentioned in her speech, I am asking Parliament Speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul and the Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin to take note and carry out remedial actions to check such shocking infamy and ignominy to both the parliamentary and higher education systems.
Furthermore, the Kepala Batas MP would have found plenty of materials on the internet to rebut the veracity of the allegations, and the question that arises here is why she had failed to do so.
Had she done her research, she would have found my media statement from early 2017 denying the veracity of a “family tree” chart alleging that I am related to Chin Peng or Lee Kuan Yew.
How could Siti Mastura be so devoid of common sense and still get a PhD?
Or as Kee Thuan Chye, the author of my two-volume biography remarked, “I know the allegations are false. I’ve recorded it on page 459 of my Volume Two!”
Kee was referring to three paragraphs in page 459 of the “Lim Kit Siang: Volume 2” book which said:
“Yet another lie claimed that Kit and other DAP leaders were relatives of the leader of the Malayan Communist Party, Chin Peng, who had died in 2013.
“A ‘family-tree’ was even disseminated online falsely showing that Chin Peng had ancestral ties with Kit, Teresa Kok, Tony Pua, Anthony Loke, Nga Kor Ming, Ngeh Koo Ham, Nizar Jamaluddin, Lim Guan Eng – and even Lee Kuan Yew!
“That sounded like a lark, so Kit dryly responded to it with: ‘Apart from Lim Guan Eng, I have no idea how I could be related to all the other named personalities.’” – Nov 21, 2023
Veteran lawmaker and retired DAP leader Tan Sri Lim Kit Siang is Malaysia’s longest serving opposition leader (29 years on three separate occasions).
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
