After over 10 days since the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) withdrew the corruption charges against Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang has finally broken his silence over the matter.
Lim today spoke out about the discharge not amounting to acquittal (DNAA) granted to Zahid by the Kuala Lumpur High Court last Monday (Sept 4) - with a mere one-liner in his statement.
“I was stunned and shocked by the DNAA development with regard to the deputy prime minister and Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi,” he said.
Citing the 12th Malaysia Plan mid-term review report, Lim pointed out that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli’s forewords - in reaffirming that the war against corruption stays atop of Putrajaya’s agenda and for Malaysia to rank within the top 25 in the global corruption perception index within 10 years - is “most reassuring”.
“How will Malaysia perform in the 2023 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index, which will be released in January next year, will be of great interest to all Malaysians.
“But the time to judge whether Malaysia is making any progress in its anti-corruption campaign (will be) in the 16th General Election (in) 2027,” the former Iskandar Puteri MP added.
On Tuesday, Kota Bharu MP Takiyuddin Hassan questioned the silence of DAP members - especially Lim, the latter’s son Lim Guan Eng and Damansara MP Gobind Singh Deo - who used to be vocal about the issues of justice.
Takiyuddin pointed out that a number of international news reports questioned the decision to withdraw all 47 charges against Zahid in the Yayasan Akalbudi corruption case.
“Where are the others, who before this always talked about justice for the rakyat, but when it comes to this DNAA issue, they are staying silent?” the PAS secretary-general asked.
Following the AGC’s decision to grant Zahid the DNAA, DAP said it "took note" of the public’s critical views on the matter and stressed that the withdrawal was the sole discretion of the attorney-general.
DAP’s silence was among the reasons Muda president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman quit the government bloc on Sunday (Sept 10), but not before accusing that the former had turned into Zahid’s “lapdog”.
‘PN busy dividing people’
Meanwhile, in the same statement, Lim took a swipe at Perikatan Nasional (PN) MPs and state representatives for appearing lackadaisical about the country’s progress to return to its former glory as a world-class nation.
Instead, Lim had claimed the PN leaders have busied themselves with “hurling along the trajectory of a divided, failed and kleptocratic state in the coming decades.”
“The critical question is whether all the 74 MPs and 208 assemblypersons from PN accept and support all the five Rukun Negara precepts and principles of Malaysia’s nation-building.
“This involves the reduction of the 3Rs (race, religion, and royalty) issues to divide the diverse races, religions and cultures and the national resolve to make Malaysia a model of tolerance and harmony,” he said. - Mkini
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