Lim Kit Siang

Highly regrettable on 6th day of MH 370 tragedy, while Malaysians prayed hard for safety of 239 passengers and crew members on board, Mahathir was only interested in spewing lies and communal poison

This is the ninth day of the MHI 370 tragedy.

It is highly regrettable that while Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or politics, are praying hard for the safety of the 239 passengers and crew members on board the Malaysian airline, there are people like the former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir who seemed more interested in continuing to spew lies and communal poison to pit race against race and religion against religion in Malaysia to further their petty political agenda.

This is what Mahathir did on Thursday, 13th March, the sixth day of the MH 370 tragedy, in his blog campaigning for the MCA candidate in the Kajang by-election – a most irresponsible and reckless act as it is such incessant spewing of lies and communal poison which had been the major cause of the worst racial and religious polarization in the nation’s history.

In his blog-post on Thursday, Mahathir continued to make baseless accusations against the DAP and the Pakatan Rakyat, alleging that DAP wanted “complete” Chinese political and economic dominance in Malaysia.

I am reminded of Mahathir’s lies and communal poison during the last general elections when he alleged that I was contesting in Gelang Patah to cause a confrontation between the Malays and Chinese in Johore on the ground that I wanted the Chinese in Johore “to dislike and hate the Malays” and the preposterous allegation that the DAP rejected the concept of Malay-Chinese-Indian power-sharing as the Chinese wanted to oust the political power of the Malays.

But Mahathir suffered a major setback when thanks to the Malay voters who did not succumb to his lies and falsehoods I was able to win the Gelang Patah parliamentary seat with a majority of over 14,000 votes in the 13th General Elections.

Now, Mahathir is back to his old trick and trying his worst to disseminate lies and communal poison to aid the MCA candidate in the Kajang by-election, completely insensitive about the national and international tragedy of the missing MH 370 entering its ninth day.

I would advise Mahathir to be more sensitive and have greater regard to his role as having been Prime Minister of Malaysia for over two decades and to stop spreading lies and pumping communal poison trying to pit race against race and religion against religion for his selfish and petty political agenda and calculations.

Would the MCA national leadership dare to speak up and ask Mahathir to stop his lies and communal poison which can only aggravate the racial and religious polarization in the country, or would the MCA leadership like Mahathir to continue with his irresponsible and reckless communal politicking hoping to gain political advantage from it – especially in the current Kajang by-election campaign?