Lim: Opposition staging rallies because they're all out of issues

Opposition parties are organising rallies and playing up racial and religious sentiments because they have run out of issues to raise, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said today.

In his speech at the DAP Youth congress today, Lim told delegates that the opposition, namely Umno and PAS, have resorted to such tactics as they cannot fight Pakatan Harapan with facts and figures. 

"I know there is worry about the rallies organised by the opposition for today and on Dec 8.

"The opposition parties now do not have any issues (to raise). They do not want to talk about the economy, as everybody knows that they don't know how to manage the economy well," he said.

"There are also those who can't manage their economies until they cannot pay the salaries of civil servants, and have to seek assistance from the federal government.

"Others dare not speak about it because they are involved in corruption, the robbing of the rakyat's money."

It is believed that Lim was referring to Perkasa's 'Jihad' rally today and to the rally against the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Icerd) scheduled for next weekend.

His remark on civil servants' salaries, meanwhile, appears to be a reference to PAS-led Kelantan. 

In his speech, Lim also cited Malaysia topping a Bloomberg list of emerging markets, which he said stood in stark contrast to the country previously being thought of as a "champion" of corruption.  

"Now we have become the world champion of developing countries' economies.

"But the opposition, they do not have issues, so they now play with religious extremism and racial sentiments."

Lim said, however, that these tactics would not work as the rakyat know that Harapan represents all segments of the country.

He added that this was why DAP Youth members must play their part in countering narratives from the opposition using facts. - Mkini