Karpal: Tunku Aziz purposely lied to poison my name

Former DAP senator Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim has been lambasted for allegedly lying that the party’s national chairperson has issued an edict to members to prohibit them from accepting awards from Malay rulers.

Karpal said he deeply regretted the former DAP’s vice-chairperson’s remark which was published in an English language daily.

“Tunku Aziz has deliberately lied to poison my name among the Malay community,” said Karpal at a press conference in Penang today.

“It is party policy not to accept such awards from the sultans and rajas as well as the governors,” added the Bukit Gelugor MP.

Karpal said the party has practised such s policy since the 1990s to ensure transparency, adding that it only applied to members were politically active.

He added that the policy was not meant to be against the royalty but was practised in the interest of transparency.

Awards, he added, can still be accepted by those who had retired from active politics.

“Those which do not confer titles should not be accepted by members, serving Parliamentarians and assemblypersons,” he said.

“Disciplinary action would be taken against those who breached the policy. Expulsion may be one of the measures taken,” he added.
Policy for those who are politically active

Karpal said the policy applied to him as well, adding. “If I accept such an award, I should be disciplined.”

Karpal was responding to the latest column entitled 'DAP's triumph of chauvinistic will' by the former Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) president on page 14 of The New Straits Timesyesterday.

In his article, Tunku Aziz (right) has described the DAP as “chauvinistic”, adding that the party practised the “politics of hate” with its partner PAS, in the Pakatan Rakyat.

Karpal urged Tunku Abdul Aziz to withdraw his statement according to his conscience.

The veteran lawyer added that it was Tunku Abdul Aziz who had approached him to handle the matter when Perak DAP chief Ngeh Khoo Ham and Selangor speaker Teng Chang Kim were conferred datukships.

“He had come up to me to state that it would be better for the CEC (central executive committee) to resolve that from then onwards, datukships ought not to be accepted and leave Ngeh and Teng alone,” he said.

“I am disappointed with Tunku Abdul Aziz. It was the DAP who gave him the opportunity to be in the senate,” he added.

“The transparency of the man who presided over TI-M is, with his poisonous and obnoxious utterances against the DAP, more than suspect,” he quipped.

In another development, Karpal expressed his condolences to the family of former Gerakan president Dr Lim Keng Yaik who passed away yesterday, describing him as “jovial and delightful”.

Karpal said he never had any problem with Lim, recalling an episode in Parliament when he told the latter to “pay an entertainment tax if he wanted to be an actor”.

“Lim had then replied, ‘You’re a terrible fellow’,” said Karpal.