Kit Siang declines DAP ‘mentor’ post

 

Lim Kit Siang says he is always available to offer advice to DAP but there is no need for him to hold any position.

PETALING JAYA: DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang has turned down being the “mentor” for the party he founded more than 50 years ago, reiterating that he was retiring from the party leadership.

In a speech during a dinner with DAP leaders and MPs last night, Lim said he will continue giving the party’s new leadership his full support, adding that this had been conveyed to secretary-general Loke Siew Fook a few days earlier.

He also noted that he could not retire from politics as a whole as long as he lived, “for politics impinges on every aspect of one’s life”.

“I thank the new central executive committee members (CEC) and the DAP secretary-general for the proposal for me to become ‘DAP mentor’.

“As a die-hard DAP worker who had spent 56 years of my life to advance the cause of DAP, I will always be available to offer my views and advice on the future of Malaysia and DAP’s new direction.

“There is however no need for any position, and I am therefore declining the CEC’s proposal to be DAP mentor,” he said.

During the party’s national congress last month, Lim announced that he was quitting politics for good and was withdrawing from the race for a seat in the CEC at the DAP elections.

Lim had been in the CEC since 1966 when he began as a national organising secretary, and subsequently went on to hold the powerful secretary-general’s post for 30 years from 1969.

However, following the party polls, the CEC named Lim as the party’s mentor. - FMT