(Petaling Jaya, Thursday): The KOKS (Knock-Out Kit Siang) leaders are showing their true colours when they are prepared to create a website on the Internet with the special and sole purpose of trying to destroy the image, credibility and integrity of the DAP leadership.
The KOKS leaders have done the greatest service to the Barisan Nasional and the greatest disservice to the DAP and the Malaysian people as a whole, especially as the country is poised on the threshhold of a historic juncture when for the first time in four decades, there is a real possibility that the Barisan Nasional two-third parliamentary majority in the coming general elections could be denied which would unleash new forces to take the people�s aspirations for justice, freedom, democracy and good governance to a new plane.
I have maintained right from the beginning that it is no party crime or breach of party discipline to be leaders or supporters of the KOKS campaign, for this is the democratic right of every DAP leader and member. I will defend to the last the democratic right of any DAP leader or member to hold the view that "32 is Enough", that I have become the greatest political liability for the DAP as had been openly expressed by one Penang KOKS leader and to campaign for my defeat at the party elections at the Party Congress on Saturday and for my ouster as DAP Secretary-General.
A vote against Lim Kit Siang is not a vote against the Party and nobody should be questioned or disciplined for it, as Lim Kit Siang is not DAP and DAP is not Lim Kit Siang.
What the party cannot accept or tolerate, however, is an organised, systematic and vicious campaign of lies and falsehoods to undermine public support and confidence for the DAP by joining forces with certain Barisan Nasional elements to allow them television prime time and unprecedented newspaper space which are denied to the DAP to attack the good name, credibility and integrity of the DAP leadership.
Lim Guan Eng has four days to go in the countdown to the Federal Court, which will hold final appellate hearings on his conviction and sentence under the Sedition Act and Printing Presses and Publications Act on Monday, August 24, 1998.
If the Federal Court upholds the Court of Appeal judgement which enhanced the Malacca High Court�s fine of RM15,000 to three years� jail, Guan Eng will enter the Kajang Prisons on Monday itself to start his jail sentence.
This is a time when all DAP leaders, members and supporters should be uniting behind Guan Eng to give him the fullest support, sympathy and solidarity over the patent injustice meted out to him, not for any high crime of armed robbery, arson or murder but for diligently, conscientiously and courageously discharging his duties as a Member of Parliament when he went to the aid of a 15-year-old girl to protect her honour, human rights and women�s rights.
Unfortunately, there are those inside the party in the KOKS campaign who are doing the opposite - devoting every second of their time and every ounce of their energy to try to undermine and destroy public support for the Support, Sympathy and Solidarity (SSS) with Lim Guan Eng campaign with the final theme of "Keep Justice Alive, Keep Guan Eng Free" - when Guan Eng may be left with only four days of freedom!
If the MCA and Gerakan try to distract public attention from the outrageous injustice in the Lim Guan Eng case or obstruct the SSS with Lim Guan Eng campaign by trying to raise queries about the status and propriety about public donations for the SSS with Lim Guan Eng campaign, nobody would be surprised. But the MCA and Gerakan dare not do this, for they will invite on their heads nation-wide outrage and condemnation, not only for the lack of integrity and principles to speak up against the injustice meted out to Guan Eng, but for their cowardly and contemptible attempt to "throw stones after falling into the well".
What the MCA and Gerakan dare not do is now being done by the KOKS leaders. Can the KOKS leaders explain why they are prepared to do the Barisan Nasional�s dirty work, which is why Wee Choo Keong, Liew Ah Kim and Fung Ket Wing have suddenly become television stars on prime-time news as well as getting acres of one-sided coverage in certain Barisan Nasional-controlled newspapers, notably the Star.
The vicious and ruthless attack by the KOKS leaders on alleged misappropriation of donations whether during the Teluk Intan by-election or for the SSS with Lim Guan Eng Campaign have caused outrage in the Party, and some members said that Wee, Liew and Fung have now make them feel shy and awkward to take donations boxes for collections from the public during DAP functions.
I do not know whether this is the objective of the KOKS leaders, who know fully well that without public donations, the DAP cannot launch any national movement or campaign in view of the party�s very limited financial resources.
The DAP has organised more than 100 SSS with Lim Guan Eng activities, such as ceramahs, dinners, forums, concerts, etc since the Court of Appeal Judgement on April 1, and as of 19th August 1998, we have collected RM114.288.28 being proceeds from sales of badges, T. shirts, auction of goods donated by well-wishers such as rice, biscuits, dumplings, chili sauce, etc. and public donations. Every sen is accounted for and every sen is banked into the Party accounts. The donations are not meant for Lim Guan Eng or for any DAP activity, but strictly to meet the expenses for launching and sustaining the SSS with Lim Guan Eng campaign, one of the most successful national campaigns in the nation�s history, which has now been broadened to another parallel National Movement for Justice, Freedom, Democracy and Good Governance.
DAP leaders and members can get information about this fund or other party funds through proper party channels, including the Party Congress on Saturday, but it is clear that the KOKS leaders are not interested in using the proper party channels to seek information but to undermine public confidence in the credibility and integrity of the Party leadership by trumping up baseless issues. DAP and all Malaysians have a right to ask these KOK leaders: What are your real motives and whose agenda are you really furthering?
I have said that many party members have expressed their outrage at such irresponsible and reckless conduct by Wee, Liew and Fung and some are even calling for the immediate expulsion of the latter two as their destructive activities in the past two-and-half-months have completely wiped out whatever contribution they have made to the Party in the past two decades, ending up in a clear negative and destructive report card.
I have never said that Liew and Fung should be expelled although I had said at the "Keep Justice Alive, Keep Guan Eng Free" SSS Lim Guan Eng ceramah in Seremban on Monday night that those in the party who are prepared, regardless of cost, to tarnish the party image, destroy the DAP�s chances in the coming general elections to make the historic contribution to create a new political scenario by denying the Barisan Nasional two-thirds parliamentary majority, have no right either to be DAP leader or even DAP member.
I am not surprised that the Taman Sri Rambai and Pekan Bukit Mertajam branches in Penang have been so outraged by the irresponsible and reckless conduct of KOKS leaders that they have called on the Party Congress to expel three of them, as there is clearly a limit to the irresponsible and reckless behaviour that DAP leaders, members and even supporters can take from KOKS leaders.
I reserve comment on the proposal by Taman Sri Rambai and Pekan Bukit Mertajam DAP Branches, but the KOKS leaders should take note of the indignation, not only within the party but among the general public, which have been aroused by their irresponsible, reckless and destructive attacks on the DAP leadership, image, credibility and integrity in the past two-and-a-half months, especially with the special treatment given to them by the Barisan Nasional-controlled radio, television and newspapers. I would urge them to pull back from the precipice before they do more harm to the Party and to themselves.
(20/8/98)