Mahathir should stop Mohd Ali Rustam’s politics of spite, vendetta and vindictiveness  as Malaysians would finally hold the Prime Minister responsible for the country reaching  a new low in political immorality and depravity

Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang
 

(Petaling Jaya, Monday): Malacca Chief Minister, Datuk Wira Mohd Ali Rustam has upped the ante in his brand of politics and culture of hatred and division by announcing a new group of victims - pro-opposition legal firms who will be barred as panel lawyers for the state and its agencies.

Already, Mohd Ali  had taken action against 21 panel doctors, two banks, a property valuer and some 20-odd local contractors he accused of having supported the Opposition in the recent general election.

Not content with only  the Malacca State Government taking action against the banks, professionals and contractors, Mohd Ali has publicly called on bodies such as Petronas, the Employees’ Provident Fund, Bank Simpanan Nasional, Tenaga Nasional Bhd and Telekom Malaysia Bhd to stop their business dealings with opposition supporters.

Malaysians are entitled to know whether Petronas, EPF, BSN, TNB and Telekom are now drawing up their own black lists and whether such a witch-hunt is being copied by the Federal Government and other State Governments under Barisan Nasional control.

Mohd Ali is preaching a new intolerance in Malaysian politics, equating support for the opposition in democratic elections with disloyalty akin to a crime.

It is clear that Mohd Ali is taking a leaf from one of his predecessors, Rahim Tamby Cik, who scored the highest votes for UMNO Supreme Council election in 1984 after he announced that the Malacca State Government would demolish the most ancient Chinese cemetry hill  in Malacca, Bukit China, together with its 12,500 graves in utter disregard of the sensitivities of a multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-religious society.

Now, Mohd Ali is as reckless as Rahim Tamby Cik in the eighties to pursue his ambition to be the highest vote-getter in the UMNO Supreme Council election in May, by conducting  a witch-hunt to victimise and persecute Malaysians for exercising their democratic and constitutional rights

Mohd Ali’s rampage is reducing and perverting  the  constitutional right of Malaysians to vote the candidate and party of their choice in an election  to one which is limited to the  constitutional right to vote only for the Barisan Nasional.

Mohd Ali should know this is not democracy but an utter mockery of democracy.

It is a very thin line before the Mohd Ali Rustams in UMNO  demand that "loyalty" declarations or  tests for banks, contractors and professionals should be carried out before they could do business with any Barisan Nasional government or public bodies!

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad should put an immediate halt to such a political witch-hunt by Mohd Ali  as Malaysians, regardless of race and religion, will finally hold Mahathir responsible for such politics of spite, vendetta and vindictiveness which had never been seen in Malaysia under the administration of the first three Prime Ministers - Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn.

Decent and right-thinking Malaysians are entitled to demand that the Prime Minister must not allow the Mohd Ali Rustams to bring Malaysia to a new low in political immorality and depravity just to serve their personal political agendas.

(20/3/2000)


*Lim Kit Siang - DAP National Chairman