‘MAKE UP YOUR MIND, KIT SIANG’
If defending party makes one a stooge, then DAP leaders are just the same, says Salleh
IF standing up for one’s party to defend it against lies, slander and other attacks makes one a stooge, then every politician, including DAP leaders, falls under the same category.
Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak said DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang needed to make up his mind as to how he expected party leaders to show loyalty towards their parties.
“Has DAP not sacked members who did not toe the party line? When people support their party, you call them stooges, and when they do not toe the party line, you call them traitors and sack them.
“Wouldn’t DAP leaders who disagreed with working with (Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia chairman) Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, but kept quiet and did not dare to oppose the move also be considered stooges?”
He said this in a blog posting yesterday in response to Lim calling him and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan “Umno stooges”.
Salleh said the DAP veteran seemed to enjoy name-calling and had used derogatory names against people who were not on the same page as him.
He pointed out that Lim praised the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) when he thought he could use it to hurt Umno, but criticised MACC when he thought it was no longer useful to DAP.
“Just two years ago, he (Lim) visited the MACC office and sang their praises, and today he has upset them (MACC) with his ‘three monkeys’ analogy and asked its (chief) commissioner, (Tan Sri) Dzulkifi Ahmad, and MACC senior officers to take a course in the English language,” he said.
Salleh, on Sunday, had posted a statement in his blog criticising Dr Mahathir for praising DAP in his speech during a launch of Pakatan Harapan in Tampoi, Johor.
Salleh asked why Dr Mahathir had not yet apologise to Lim, dissolve PPBM and joined DAP if he believed his previous perception of DAP as chauvinistic was wrong.
Rahman, on the other hand, urged Lim to retire from politics for his lack of confidence in opposing the BN-led government and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
This, he had said, was because Lim had agreed to Dr Mahathir being Pakatan Harapan chairman despite the fact that the former prime minister was not a member of parliament and DAP was the dominant party in the opposition coalition.