DAP can’t win beyond 18 federal seats? We’ve done it thrice before without your help, Kit Siang tells Dr M

 

Opposition lawmaker Lim Kit Siang says DAP’s trajectory in elections has consistently moved upwards over the years. — Picture by Ahmad Zamzahuri

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 1 — Contrary to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s claim, DAP is capable of winning more than 18 parliamentary seats without help from him, veteran Opposition lawmaker Lim Kit Siang said today.

Scoffing at the former prime minister’s recent assertion, Lim said DAP has proven so more than once in past general elections, and attributed its success to the party’s consistency in sticking to its principles and five objectives for a multiracial, multilingual and multicultural society that has struck a chord with voters.

“I admit that Dr Mahathir had helped in DAP winning 42 parliamentary seats in the 2018 General Election, but to say that the DAP had not been able to win more than 18 parliamentary seats is totally incorrect,” the Iskandar Puteri MP said in a statement.

He pointed out the DAP’s trajectory in elections has consistently moved upwards over the years.

He said it won 24 parliamentary seats in the 1986 elections, 20 seats four years later, 38 seats in Election 2013, before securing 42 seats in the last general election in 2018.

“Although the DAP had been demonised by lies, falsehoods and fake news as anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Malay Rulers for the past five decades, the DAP had right from its formation in 1966 been committed to a multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural Malaysian objective and had never been against any race or religion or against the monarchical system in Malaysia.

“With the diabolical campaign of misinformation, lies, falsehoods and fake news, which were intensified in the last 12 years since 2008, that the DAP was anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Malay Rulers, we faced an uphill battle to win over the support of the Malays, but we have never given up this challenge,” Lim added.

Dr Mahathir told China Press in a recent interview that the Pakatan Harapan coalition ― of which DAP is a founding party ― would not be able to garner Malay support in the next general election without his help.

Dr Mahathir had singled out DAP, saying the party benefited the most from his popularity during the GE13 campaign as he helped bolster Malay support, enabling it to win 42 out of 222 seats in the Dewan Rakyat.

The 95-year-old left Umno and was later expelled last year from Bersatu, the Malay Bumiputera-based party he co-founded in 2016, after the collapse of the PH government.

Dr Mahathir has since founded yet another Malay based party called Pejuang, which had called for all Opposition parties to band together again and form a “grand coalition” to take on the Perikatan Nasional government in the next general election, which is not due until 2023. - malaymail