Newspapers should exercise greater responsibility over the articles they carry on their leader pages

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Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang 

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In the first place, I had never made such a statement. The last time  I referred to this issue was my speech at the DAP Revamp Conference  in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, where I said:
 

“I know there is considerable unhappiness in the party that I had announced that I would study public feedback and demands from outside the party that I step down as DAP National Chairman and that I would announce my political future during the Chinese New Year holidays.

“Party leaders at national, state and branch levels, as well as members and supporters, are of the view that whether I should stay as chairman or not is a party internal matter and should not be decided by outsiders.

“I would appeal to DAP members and supporters to be patient and to bear with me while I absorb and digest the demands for my retirement from politics and I make my decision next month on my political future.

“I thank party leaders and members for their confidence and support for me as National Chairman and there is no need for any form of demonstration of support for me from inside the party.  This is why I would ask all DAP State Conventions which will be held in the next two months not to introduce resolution on my position inside the party, lest detractors of the party level their accusations that  DAP and I are staging some political  ‘drama’.

“While I am fully satisfied and happy with the support given to me by all levels of the party, I have to address the demands by certain quarters outside the party demanding that I retire from politics - both from bona fide observers as well as from mala fide elements who have their political axes to grind or ulterior agendas to serve.

“Even the mala fide ‘detractors’ are entitled to their say and I am giving them almost two full months to give their views.”

I would urge newspapers to exercise greater responsibility over the article they carry on their leader pages, at least to make sure that statements attributed to me are accurate and factual.

The article concerned was written under a pen-name, and although it was written in a manner trying to give the impression that it was by an “uninvolved” party, the identity of the authorship is quite  clear - written by one who had not only lost all political credibility but is now losing all intellectual honesty in having to hide behind a pseudonym to shoot his ‘stealthy arrows’.

(20/1/2000)