The Malaysian Insider today reported a column in Utusan Malaysia by Tun Dr. Mahathir showing that the former Prime Minister is still up to his game of mischief to demonise Pakatan Rakyat parties and incite racial hatred and conflict in the country.
Mahathir said PAS will never lead Malaysia and even if Pakatan Rakyat captures Putrajaya it will be a junior partner and a DAP puppet.
Before the 13GE, DAP was accused of being a PAS puppet among the Chinese and non-Malay voters while PAS was accused of being a DAP puppet among Malay voters.
It would appear that UMNO/BN leaders and propagandists want Malaysian voters to believe that DAP is puppet to PAS, while PAS is puppet to DAP – thinking that Malaysians can be easily fooled into believing that DAP could be puppet to PAS and PAS puppet to DAP!
This is of course utter nonsense, for DAP is no puppet of PAS just as PAS is no puppet of DAP. Just because UMNO can make the other Barisan Nasional parties its puppet does not mean that this is the operating principle in Pakatan Rakyat as well.
In his column, Mahathir said that PAS had never had any big wins in the general elections, which is another baseless and mischievious propaganda.
In actual fact, PAS scored its biggest win in the 1999 general elections when the Barisan Alternative was formed, as PAS won 27 parliamentary seats as against 10 by DAP and five by PKR. As a result, the PAS President Fadzil Noor was appointed the Parliamentary Opposition Leader.
At the state level, PAS retained the Kelantan State Government and won the Trengganu State Government – another big win by PAS. Countrywide PAS won 98 State Assembly seats as compared to 11 for DAP and 4 for PKR.
I would advise Mahathir to stop his game of mischief with lies and falsehoods to demonise the Pakatan Rakyat parties and to incite racial hatred and conflict.
[Speech by DAP Parliamentary Leader and MP for Gelang Patah when opening the Forum “Bajet BN – Siapa Untung, Siapa Rugi?” at Century Hotel, Johore Baru on Sunday, 1st December 2013 at 4.30 pm]