Kit Siang stresses he's born in Malaysia after viral video

DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang today was forced to issue a statement stressing that he was born in Malaysia, not China, after a video on the issue has gone viral on social media.

In fact, he said, the first time he stepped foot in China was when he was around 50 years old.

“The so-called episode where I mengamuk’ (blew my top) when I was asked by airport reporters where I was born was completely fictitious and never happened,” he said in a statement today.

“The demonisation of me as not a local born but came from China when I was 16 years old and settled in Batu Pahat in the 50s, was a complete lie.”

He said he was born in 1941 in Batu Pahat, Johor, and completed 11 years of primary and secondary schooling in the same town.

His statement comes after a video on the issue, first uploaded four years ago on YouTube, went viral on TikTok.

In this video, a presenter claimed Lim had blown his top when asked by reporters where he was born.

Social media users

The presenter said this when presenting the “top five news of the week”, after which he discussed the alleged news item with a panel of three other presenters.

The video by the YouTube channel Nothing To Hide Media, from 2018, does not state where this alleged news was published.

The same clip has been uploaded on TikTok by user Tok Pala 4s on June 8, 2023, and has received more than 600,000 views and more than 2,500 shares.

The clip on TikTok also showed a photograph of Lim receiving his “Tan Sri” award from the Agong.

The same TikTok user had campaigned during the recent Kedah state election and was appointed as independent Kuah candidate Mazlan Ahmad’s representative. In one video, he called on PAS supporters to vote for Mazlan.

During campaigning, Mazlan, the former deputy chief for PAS' Langkawi division, was sacked from the party for contesting against Bersatu, the Islamist party’s partner in Perikatan Nasional. 

Meanwhile, the same clip uploaded by Tok Pala 4s has also been shared on other social media users on TikTok and other social media platforms.

Other clips claiming Lim was born in Funan, China, is also circulating on TikTok. - Mkini