Guan Eng on the attack after Najib fired blanks in Sandakan

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng has told a certain “individual” to stop involving himself in the Sandakan by-election and focus instead on his court cases.

Though he did not name the individual, Lim is believed to be referring to former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, who had questioned yesterday whether DAP was abusing its power over the use of chairs from the Sandakan City Council in their ceramah.

“The chairs here today were all rented... Even this, they want to play up. Aiyah, that individual has no capital anymore.

“I tell you, don’t think about Sandakan. You better think about your court (cases),” Lim said at a ceramah in Sandakan last night.

Najib is currently facing trial for criminal breach of trust and money laundering involving SRC International Sdn Bhd, a former subsidiary of 1MDB.

He had yesterday morning uploaded pictures on his Facebook page showing chairs marked 'MPS' being used at a DAP ceramah for the ongoing Sandakan by-election campaign.

"Were MPS assets abused for a DAP ceramah for the Sandakan by-election?" he had asked in the post.

DAP refuted this hours later, saying that they rented the chairs from the city council and produced an application letter from his party to MPS for the rental of a stage and 500 chairs for their ceramah on Monday night in Kampung Sim Sim.

Following that, Najib claimed DAP was not able to produce the approval letter or receipts for the rental. DAP today produced the approval letter and receipts from the Sandakan City Council.

At the ceramah last night, Lim also jokingly reminded the opposition that he was not the candidate for the Sandakan by-election.

“They don’t have any issues, they don’t have capital, so they use personal attacks against me, slammed (hentam) me like I’m the candidate here. My picture even appeared on a billboard.

“I want to tell them, don’t fall asleep, I’m not the candidate in Sandakan. Vivian is the candidate here in Sandakan,” he said, referring to DAP’s candidate Vivian Wong.

PBS billboard removed

Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), which is fielding Linda Tsen in the Sandakan by-election, had put up a billboard which claimed Lim "had threatened not to help voters over the issue of insufficient parking lots at the Sandakan Hospital".

The billboard was taken down by the Election Commission yesterday morning after DAP lodged a police report.

PBS has since said they are being investigated under Section 504 of the Penal Code over the billboard. Section 504 deals with intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of the peace.

When asked after the ceramah, Lim declined to comment further about the billboard, saying the issue has been answered by other DAP leaders.

“I don’t want to give credibility to this type of low slander, especially if it is not true.

“Let us present our case to the people, let the Sandakan people know they (the opposition) are resorting to lies and personal attack,” he said to reporters.

In his speech, Lim had urged the people of Sandakan to reject the opposition for failing to combat corruption when they were in government, failing to bring people-centric development to the state and also for failing to defend the status and rights of Sabah under the constitution.

Apart from DAP’s Wong and PBS’ Tsen, three independents - Hamzah Abdullah, Chia Siew Yong and Sulaiman Abdul Samad – are vying for the parliamentary seat which was vacated following the death of Stephen Wong, who won the seat for DAP in GE14 last year.

Polling day for the Sandakan by-election is May 11. - Mkini