RETIRED DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang has revealed that personal vendetta could be the basis of Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin turning to attack DAP in recent times.
In his reckoning, the 81-year-old veteran lawmaker said this could be attributed to his failure to support Muhyiddin as prime minister (PM) when he was approached in 2016 before the formation of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu).
Kit Siang justified that it was not that he turned down the request of the Bersatu president but DAP back then was already committed to rally for current Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as its PM candidate.
It was nevertheless worthwhile to mention that in 2016, Anwar was still serving his jail sentence after the Federal Court upheld a Court of Appeal verdict that Anwar was guilty of sodomy under the Malaysian penal code on Feb 10, 2015.
Following such outcome, the current Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman was taken into custody and immediately began serving a five-year prison term until he walked out a free man on May 15, 2018 after being granted full pardon from former Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Muhammad V.
“I vividly remember the cloak-and-dagger condition under which Muhyiddin met me with the proposal, but I was unable to say ‘yes’ as the DAP was committed to Anwar as the PM,” Kit Siang clarified in a speech intended for his 15th General Election (GE15) ceramah yesterday (Nov 13) in support of PH-UPKO candidate for the Libaran constituency, Dr Peter Jr Naintin.
“Muhyiddin cannot deny the meeting as there were witnesses to the secret meeting in Kuala Lumpur,” Kit Siang further insisted.
He went on to say that it is most unfortunate that Muhyiddin has now decided to attack the DAP just because the party was unable to support him as PM but nevertheless rendered him full support as home minister during the 22-month PH government.
“On looking back, it is rather ‘fishy’ for the police to detain DAP leaders, including a state executive councillor (G. Saminathan) and a state assemblyman (P. Gunasekaran) for alleged links and support of the Sri Lanka Tamil Tigers,” recalled Kit Siang.
“At that time, we thought that was a pure police operation, and that the police was wrong to link the DAP leaders with the Sri Lanka Tamil Tigers.”
In retrospect, Kit Siang said it becomes clear now that the detention of the DAP leaders for alleged links to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was not a pure police operation “but more a political operation of Muhyiddin and his allies which led to the Sheraton Move political conspiracy which toppled the PH government in 22 months”. – Nov 14, 2022
