(Penang, Saturday): My attention has just been drawn to the preposterous allegation by Gerakan President and Primary Industries Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Lim Keng Yaik at the Gerakan Deepavali Open House in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday making the serious charge that "at the time of national crisis, DAP had joined hands with external enemies to destroy the people's confidence in the government". (China Press 31.10.97).
This is a most wild and irresponsible allegation, which should never have been made by a serious political veteran like Keng Yaik, even if he is very upset that the DAP had not obliged him by acceding to his open request that the DAP stay out of the Sungai Bakap by-election.
I want to ask Keng Yaik why he should be so worried about the outcome of the Sungai Bakap by-election on November 8, when nobody expects the Gerakan candidate to lose. What is at stake is only the question of the winning margin, as it is clearly impossible that the Gerakan candidate can maintain the 1995 general election majority of 5,327 votes.
In fact, there are those who predict that the Gerakan majority is going to be less than 3,000, some think even less than 2,000, very few expect it to be below 1,000 while the voters of Sungai Bakap would be "writing history, creating miracle" and generated a Richter 6 political earthquake if they could cut the Gerakan majority to below 500 votes.
This, however, can be no excuse for Keng Yaik to make the preposterous allegation at the Gerakan Deepavali Open House in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday that the DAP had "joined hands with external enemies to destroy the people's confidence in the government".
Is Keng Yaik alleging that the DAP has become an anti-national and disloyal political party and DAP leaders should all be locked up under the Internal Security Act? I have been detained twice under Internal Security Act for standing up for the rights and interests of all Malaysians, and I would not be surprised if I am detained a third time under the Internal Security Act.
But what I had not expected is that the call for my third detention under the Internal Security Act should come from Keng Yaik and the Gerakan.
Of course, Keng Yaik and the Gerakan had not openly called for my third detention under the Internal Security Act. They would not be so stupid.
However, when Keng Yaik made the serious allegation that "at the time of national crisis, DAP had joined hands with external enemies to destroy the people's confidence in the government", he is virtually charging DAP leaders with the heinous capital crime of treason and creating the conditions for another round of ISA mass arrests of DAP leaders, as happened just 10 years ago under Operation Lalang when 16 DAP leaders and MPs were among the 106 people detained.
Keng Yaik should substantiate or withdraw and apologise for his preposterous allegation that "the DAP had joined hands with external enemies to destroy the people's confidence in the government" and therefore has become a disloyal, anti-national and traitorous political party.
I am in fact still waiting for Keng Yaik's response to my challenge to him to a public debate before the by-election polling on Nov. 8 whether the Gerakan was doing Mahathir and Malaysia a service or a disservice by making the vote of confidence in Mahathir as Prime Minister the key issue in the Sungai Bakap by-election. This public debate can include the subject of his preposterous allegation that the DAP has become a disloyal, anti-national and traitorous party in joining forces with external enemies to destroy the people's confidence in the government.
The DAP had never joined hands with any "external enemies to destroy the people's confidence in the governmebnt", and I stand by every word that I had said in the Sungai Bakap by-election.
I will leave it to the voters of Sungai Bakap to decide whether I should be detained a third time under the Internal Security Act for having allegedly "joined hands with external enemies to destroy the people's confidence in the government" for campaigning in the Sungai Bakap by-election, and whether other DAP leaders should also be detained under the ISA.
If the voters of Sungai Bakap agree that what I am saying in the by-election campaign proves that the DAP had "joined hands with external enemies to destroy the people's confidence in the government", and that we have become disloyal, anti-national and traitors to the nation, then let them reject the DAP in the by-election by giving the Gerakan candidate an even bigger majority than the 5,327-vote majority in the last general elections.
However, if they think that Keng Yaik's allegation is most preposterous and completely unacceptable, and that there is no reason why I should be detained under the ISA for a third time or other DAP leaders arrested under the ISA, then let them give their fullest support to the DAP in the by-election, even to the extent of "writing history, creating miracle" by generating a Richter 6 political earthquake in reducing the Gerakan majority to below 500 votes.
In any event, I would like to advise Keng Yaik and the other Gerakan leaders that they are doing Mahathir and Malaysia a great disservice by trying to turn the Sungai Bakap by-election into a vote of confidence in Mahathir as Prime Minister, and forcing Mahathir into a no-win situation as a single-vote reduction in the Barisan Nasional's 5,327-vote majority in 1995 general elections would be taken by the "external enemies" as proof that Mahathir had lost the confidence of the people.
The people whose opportunism, loyalty and patriotism must be questioned are Keng Yaik and Gerakan leaders who are prepared, just to get some votes in Sungai Bakap for the Gerakan candidate, to expose Mahathir to such a "no-win" situation, which can do no good for the international standing of Mahathir or Malaysia. I would seriously urge Keng Yaik and the Gerakan leaders to cease and desist from such tactics and to openly declare that the issue of confidence of Mahathir as Prime Minister is not an issue at all in the Sungai Bakap by-election.
I know that this is the "ace" strategy of the Gerakan in the Sungai Bakap by-election, but it is also a "strategy of poison". It may be good for the Gerakan candidate, but it is bad for the nation and Mahathir himself. If Keng Yaik and Gerakan are not prepared to announce the abandonment of their "ace" and "poisoned" strategy, then the voters of Sungai Bakap must demolish this Gerakan "ace" and "poisoned" strategy as their first task on polling day on Nov. 8.
(1/11/97)