Kit Siang helps Najib launder his reputation

"Will Najib do that and will the BN, comprising Umno, MCA, and MIC, declare they will never name Najib as a future prime minister of Malaysia?"

– Lim Kit Siang

In a public statement from the DAP in 2018, the highly respected Lim Kit Siang, the grand old man of Malaysian politics, said this:

“Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak is entitled to a fair and objective hearing in his trial over criminal breach of trust and abuse of power involving RM42 million linked to SRC International Sdn Bhd – although this was denied to many during Najib’s premiership, especially Teoh Beng Hock. Ahmad Sarbani Mohamed, A Kugan, S Balamurugan or Altantuya Shaariibuu.”

Leading up to the general election that saw Umno fall from grace, Lim wondered why the silence from a prime minister which international news organisations had labelled a “thief”.

“In the first time in 61 years of the nation’s history, the prime minister of the country has been publicly been called a ‘thief’, not once, but twice within two days, by two international media organisations on completely different issues.”

Now it seems that Lim was willing to work with Najib if he condemned the 1MDB scandal because apparently everyone is capable of change for the better. There is a funny quote by Lim in his piece about working with a reformed Najib.

He wrote: “There are no angels among men and women but it is wrong to see anyone as the very embodiment of evil.”

This is of course hilarious because the DAP and its hardcore partisans do this to anyone they disagree with or who disagrees with them.

This Manichean view is straight out of the DAP playbook and there is a dearth of quotes and actions by DAP political operatives and supporters who have done “wrong” by seeing their detractors as the “very embodiment of evil”.

Indeed Damansara MP Tony Pua lectured a Chinese school in Johor for inviting Najib to speak there, wagging his finger and saying: "These governors should all be sacked for a complete lack of integrity, for failing to set an upright example for our young and innocent children and destroying the moral fibre of our society.”

Damansara MP Tony Pua

Didn’t someone tell Pua that it is wrong to see anyone as the embodiment of evil, that people can change but most importantly, you should not lecture people on ethics when your own party had hooked up with someone your bosses had called a cruel dictator for decades?

I would say that this puts the other DAP political operatives in an uncomfortable position, but seeing how any form of dissent is frowned upon in the DAP, nobody is going to come out and disagree with Lim.

Indeed, by making this statement, the DAP does not get to lecture anyone on their silence or working with Najib.

They can’t say this to Umno, the MCA or anyone really who thinks that maybe Najib has “changed”. Or does someone change only when the DAP says so?

Keep in mind that Najib swore on oath in a mosque that he had nothing to do with the murder of Altantuya, stating “In Allah’s noble house, and on this thankful Friday, I declare and swear... I have never instructed any individual to murder a woman of Mongolian nationality named Altantuya Shaariibuu.”

People wanted change

Is that good enough for Lim? Also, remember that Najib was willing to take an oath saying that he had nothing to do with 1MDB but his lawyers said that he had already taken an oath in court.

"After the case is finished, I would like to invite (Lim) to the mosque where I would swear a sumpah laknat on 1MDB,” Najib had said in his Facebook post.

Four years have passed since Najib made that offer, so maybe he and Lim could get together and forget that Najib was found guilty because, you know, a man can change and he is going to swear that he did nothing wrong in a mosque. Who needs to condemn when you swear on a holy book, right?

PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli

Say what you want about PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli but at least he has the cajones to directly attack Bossku and throw rhetorical hand grenades into the well-laid plans of the Malaysian political establishment.

Here we have a young Malay leader taking on corruption and political malfeasances head-on, and an elder Chinese leader aping the sentiments of religionists who claim that a man can change if he condemns an act but does so with no penitence.

Lim is peddling the same manure as religious operatives by downplaying the extent of not only Najib’s corruption but also that when a man supposedly changes, all his sins are washed away.

People who voted for Pakatan Harapan wanted change but all they got was the same old horse manure, while Harapan political operatives and hyper partisans berated anyone who demanded that Harapan live up to its promises and its supposed principles.

I get that hardcore Harapan supporters want someone to tell them how to reform this country instead of knowing what they want and ensuring their political candidates fulfil the mandate they were voted in for, and for years Harapan coasted on this.

All of these upheavals are Harapan's chickens coming home to roost.

Do you know what fence-sitters see when they read something like this? They see a craven political gambit and why bother voting or even voting for Harapan when the Malay uber alles parties do it much better.

The rhetoric of Lim, unfortunately, feeds into the propaganda of Malay uber alles parties, which attempts to depict the DAP as willing to work with anyone in order to gain power. - Mkini

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S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.