Statement by parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, at the Chan She Shu Yuen in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday,3rd May 1990 at 11 a.m. on the challenge to Gerakan President, Dr. Lim Keng Yaik to produce proof of his allegation of DAP-PAS Jakarta ‘secret’ meeting
Lim Keng Yaik is an inveterate, compulsive and incorrigible liar and I challenge him to sue me for slander and defamation for exposing his reputation and good name to public ridicule, opprobrium and odium.
On Sunday, 22nd April 1990, the Gerakan President and Primary Industries Minister, Datuk Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, when opening the Selangor Gerakan. Assembly in Petaling Jaya, alleged a secret DAP-PAS meeting Jakarta.
This is what the Utusan Malaysia reported on Monday, 23rd April 1990:
“Saya tunggu mereka (DAP dan PAS) menafikannya dahulu kemudian baru saya beritahu,” katanay kepada pemberita selepas merasmikan Perhimpunan Gerakan Negeri Selangor di Maktab Kerjasama di sini hari ini.
“Menurut Datuk Sri Dr. Lim, maklumat mengenai rancangan kedua-dua belah pihak itu diperolehi daripada sumber-sumber yang sahih dua hari lalu.
“Saya juga mendapat maklumat bahawa banyak perjumpaan sulit diadakan di antara pemimpin kedua-dua belah pihak,”tambah beliau. ”
This was why I immediately challenged Keng Yaik to produce proof within 48 hours to substantiate his allegations of DAP-PAS secret meetings outside the country, and when he failed to do so, I fixed for him to come to Chan She Shu Yuan today to produce his proof.
Three days ago, in a press conference in Penang, I publicly announced that if Keng Yaik fails to produce the proof to substantiate his allegations of DAP-PAS secret meeting today, I would publicly call him a liar and invite him to sue me in court for slander and defamation of his character.
I hereby openly, publicly and unreservedly call Keng Yaik an inveterate, compulsive and incorrigible liar, and invite him to sue me in court for slander and defamation for openly exposing him to public ridicule, opprobrium and odium. I have asked DAP MP for Jelutong, Karpal Singh, to be present as my lawyer to deal with Keng Yaik’s defamation suit if the Gerakan President dares to institute it.
I also hereby publicly declare that if Keng Yaik dares to call me a liar, I will slap a defamation suit if the Gerakan President dares to institute it.
I also hereby publicly declare that if Keng Yaik dares to call me a liar, I will slap a defamation suit on him without hesitation. Let Keng Yaik name the date, place and time where he wants to call me a liar, and my lawyers and I will be there to initiate legal proceedings.
As I said on April 25, Keng Yaik has to produce proof to substantiate five allegations, namely:
The ‘secret meeting’ between a DAP Youth leader and a PAS Youth leader;
That the DAP and PAS leaders have had several secret meetings;
That DAP Publicity Secretary and MP for Seputeh, Sdr Liew Ah Kim, and the DAP National Organising Secretary and Malacca Assemblyman for Durian Duan, Sdr. Kerk Kim Hock, were involved in the arrangements for these DAP-PAS ‘secret meetings’;
That PAS Information Chief Subky Latiff was involved in the ‘secret meeting’ with a DAP official in Jakarta;
That I had a private ‘closed-door’ meeting with Keng Yaik in 1987, as Keng Yaik had told a Chinese weekly magazine in early April, who at the same time alleged that I meetings with me,” if the contents of the subjects of discussion are not adequate, Kit Siang would accuse him of not being sincere; if he says too much, Kit Siang would use it later to attack him.” In actual fact, I never had a private ‘closed-door’ meeting with Keng Yaik in 1987.
After April 25, Keng Yaik had told more lies. He said that a ‘ high-ranking DAP leader’ was his ‘reliable source’ but all the Gerakan produced yesterday was an ordinary DAP member, Yusop bin Mohamad Yusop, who tried to pass himself off as DAPSY National Deputy Chairman, when he had resigned from the post in October 1989.
Ten lies by Keng Yaik in a few days!
Keng Yaik’s other lies were:
His claim that he did not know whether the 16th April meeting of Jakarta was held or not when, if Mohamad Yusop’s story was his source, he would have known that Mohamad Yusop said that it was not held.
His lies at the Selangor Gerakan Assembly on April 22 that I am a dictator in the DAP;
His lies that I insist on chairing all DAPSY meetings, when I had not chaired a single DAPSY meeting!
In a short space of a few days, Keng Yaik had told over ten lies. This is why I am today publicly calling him, not just a liar, but an inveterate, compulsive and incorrigible liar. I tell Keng Yaik : Sue me!
If he does not sue me, then it is an admission and confession by Keng Yaik that he is an inveterate, compulsive and incorrigible liar.
I will be disappointed if Keng Yaik does not sue me, for I will love to see Keng Yaik, Dr. Kang Chin Seng, Mohamed Yusop get into the witness box and be torn to pieces, limb by limb, by Karpal Singh for the mountain of lies they are weaving and telling.
Keng yaik should resign as Cabinet Minister as morally he would not be different from D.P.Vijandran
If Keng Yaik does not sue me although I have openly and publicly called him an inveterate, compulsive and incorrigible liar, then he has lost the moral right to continue as a public leader and he should resign forthwith as Cabinet Minister.
This is because he would be no different from the former MIC Secretary-General and former Deputy Speaker, D.P. Vijandran, in lacking the basic moral and ethical values the people expect in their leaders.
Keng Yaik, in moral and ethical terms, will have done the same wrong as D.P. Vijandran, although the letter was involved in the Vijandran pornographic videotapes scandal while the Gerakan President is involved in the Lim Keng Yaik Lies Scandal.
I find it significant that is was the Director of Gerakan Publicity Bureau. Dr. Kang Chin Sang, who conducted the press conference by Mohamad Yusop, for it confirmed by suspicion that the lies about the DAP-PAS secret meeting was fabricated and concocted by the Gerakan brain-trust, comprising Gerakan Deputy President, Kerk Choo Ting and Gerakan National Youth Leader, Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, apart from Dr. Kang.
The Lim Keng Yaik Lies Scandal is an interesting object lesson to those who want to tell lies that they have to tell a thousand lies to cover one single lie, and would still be caught in the act. In this case, after telling the lie about the secret DAP-PAS meeting in Jakarta, they have laboriously to construct the lies to prop up such an original lie, both the alleged events before and after the so-called Jakarta meeting.
In my press conference yesterday, I have already shown that Mohamed Yusop had told six lies in his few brief words, and I do not propose to repeat what I said yesterday, but to point out new contradictions which constitute the cover of the Lin Keng Yaik Lies Scandal.
As Liew Ah Kim and Subky Latiff are both national DAP and PAS leaders, why didn’t Keng Yaik describe it as a top ‘secret’ meeting between DAP and PAS instead of between DAP and PAS Youth leaders?
Dr. Lim Keng Yaik started by alleging that the Jakarta meeting was a secret meeting between the DAP and PAS Youth leaders. But the two leaders he first named were both not Youth leaders, i.e. Liew Ah Kim and Subky Latiff. Liew Ah Kim had never been a DAPSY official, being currently DAP National Publicity Secretary; and Subky Latiff is PAS Information Officer.
Strangely enough, keng Yaik gave the name oof Kerk Kim Hock, who is DAPSY National Vice Chairman, to the Sin Min reporter, at the same time he was shown fumbling over TV news later in the evening producing the name of Liew Ah Kim as the person involved in the Jakarta meeting.
From this, it is clear that Keng Yaik had wanted to name Kerk Kim Hock but his TV performance shown throughout the country fumblingly producing the name of Liew Ah Kim put him in a quandary. Finally, he decided to explain that he had mixed up between Liew Ah Kim and Kerk Kim Hock , although it is Kerk Kim Hock who is a DAPSY leader and not Liew Ah Kim.
From this, it can be shown that Keng Yaik can name or drop names as and when it suits him for the Jakarta ‘secret meeting’!
When it was pointed out to Keng Yaik that neither Ah Kim nor Subky Latiff were Youth leaders, Keng Yaik came out with the name of Lim Guan Eng, National DAPSY Chairman. And when we pressed further for evidence, the original one DAP leader grew to two and then to the present three-man delegation to include the Gerakan ‘star witness’, the self-proclaimed DAPSY Deputy Chairman, Mohamed Yusop.
Can Keng Yaik explain why Guan Eng should ask Mahamed Yusop to go on such a ‘secret mission’ to Jakarta, when he is only an ordinary member, whose activities were arousing great suspicion and dis-rust in the Malacca DAP office for the past few months?
Similarly, like a magician producing a rabbit from a hat, Keng Yaik has produced the name of the PAS Youth leader, Abu Bakar Cik, as involved in the Jakarta meeting.
But even more significant is why, since Keng Yaik had from the first day mentioned Liew Ah Kim and Subky Latiff, who are both DAP and PAS national leaders, the Gerakan President did not allege that this Jakarta ‘secret meeting’ was a meeting of top DAP and PAS leaders, and not the less important one of TOUTH leaders of DAP and PAS?
This is because Keng Yaik and his Gerakan brain-trust was inventing the Jakarta ‘secret meeting’ day by day, piece by piece, and inevitably. Such piece cannot fit each other.
Gerakan sending ‘head-hunter’s to induce, temp or pressure DAP officials and members to defect allegedly over the Jakarta ‘secret meeting’
I had anticipated that the Gerakan leaders will try to buy up a few DAP members to repeat the lie of the Jakarta secret meeting, as Mohamad Yusop had done.
Would Keng Yaik dare to answer, whether he would accept as proof that he is a Corrupt Minister if I get a Gerakan member to call a press conference and say that Keng Yaik had told him that he was going overseas to put corruption money which he had accumulated into unnumbered Swiss bank accounts?
Dr. Kang suggested that there would be other DAP members who would be joining the ranks of Mohamed Yusop. I am aware that since I put pressure on Keng Yaik to produce proof, he had desperately sent out ‘head-hunters’ to try to buy up DAP members and officials, asking them just to say one thing, that they had heard about the secret Jakarta meeting and are dissatisfied with me as DAP Secretary-General.
I welcome the Gerakan ‘brain-trust’ to do its worst, for I would like to see how many and who are the DAP members and officials who cannot withstand the temptations, inducements and pressures of the Gerakan ‘head-hunters’, who are trying to get DAP members and officials to openly betray the DAP.
I would only add that I reserve the right to expose the names of these Gerakan ‘head-hunters’ and the tactics they use to catch their game. When I expose these Gerakan ‘head-hunters’, it will be found that they occupy very important posts in both party and government.
Challenge to Keng Yaik and Ling Liong Sik to a series of public debated on their allegation that DAP want to create an Islamic State by co-operating with PAS
Keng Yaik had a most malicious and wicked motive in telling the lie about the Secret DAP-PAS meeting in Jakarta, which is to further the impression that the DAP wants to create an Islamic State by co-operating with PAS.
Keng Yaik telling more lies
Secondly, Keng Yaik, while declaring that he would not sue me for calling him an “inveterate, compulsive and incorrigible liar”, was again at his favourite pastime of telling more lies.
He told the press at the Ministry of Primary Industries yesterday that the PAS Information Chief, Subky Latiff, had admitted to DAP-PAS relationship, and by implication, admitting that there was a DAP-PAS secret meeting in Jakarta.
I have never seen Subky Latiff making such an admission, and this is the latest lie coming from the Minister of Primary Lies, Datuk Dr. Lim Keng Yaik.
I am profoundly shocked that there could be a political leader, and a senior Cabinet Minister, who could grin and joke when he has been publicly called a liar, and challenged to clear his name and reputation in court.
I still remember that in last December’s Parliament, when DAP Deputy Chairman and MP for Jelutong, Sdn. Karpal Singh, openly accused the Deputy Speaker, D.P. Vijandran, of involvement in the pornographic videotapes scandal, Ministers and MPs from the other Barisan Nasional component parties would privately express their disgust and shame with Vijandran for not daring to clear his own name either by challenging Karpal Singh to repeat his allegations outside Parliament or refer him to the Committee of Privileges.
I do not know whether the leaders and MPs of other Barisan Nasional component parties would how feel similar disgust and shame with Keng Yaik, who dare not clear his reputation by suing me in court.
For the first time, the Cabinet has a confirmed liar as a senior member
For the first time, the Cabinet has a Minister who has been openly called a liar, and who dare not take the only action available to clear his own name, by way of a defamation suit.
I do not know whether the Prime Minister and the other Cabinet Ministers feel honoured to be in such a historic Cabinet, with a confirmed liar as a senior member.
Kang Yaik has rhetorically asked why he should “dance to the tune played by Mr. Lim.” Keng Yaik is not dancing to my tune, and I do not expect him to dance to my tune. Kenh Yaik is dancing to the tune of his many big lawyers in the Gerakan, like Kerk Chop Ting and Dominic Puthucheary, who must have warned Keng Yaik of the consequences of going to court when he had lied on the DAP-PAS secret meeting in Jakarta.
If Keng Yaik does not sue me in court, he is admitting that he has no character or reputation to be redeemed
I hope these Gerakan lawyers would have also advised Keng Yaik that if he does not sue me in court to redeem his character and reputation which I had openly brought into public ridicule, contempt, opprobrium and odium, it would mean that Keng Yaik is openly admitting that he has no character or reputation left to be redeemed!
Keng Yaik said that I should be “open and publicly admit DAP’s relationship with PAS, as there is nothing to hide”.
What Keng Yaik had done is no different from what the MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik, had been doing since the 41st MCA party anniversary in early March, launching into a regular attack on the DAP for wanting to create an Islamic State by xo-operating with PAS.
The only difference is that Liong Sik had not been so reckless as Keng Yaik as to concoct the Jakarta ‘secret meeting’ from thin air.
The DAP has exposed the lies of Keng Yaik and his brain-trust, especially Kert Choo Ting, Dr. Koh Tsu Koon and Dr. Kang Chin Sang, in concocting the fairy tale of the secret Jakarta meeting.
I am also prepared to take on Keng Yaik and Liong Sik in a public debate on their allegations that the DAP wants to create an Islamic State by co-operating with PAS.
If Keng Yaik and Liong Sik’s allegations are true, the DAP will not dare to have an open debate and argument with either the Gerakan President or the MCA President, let alone with both of them together.
But I am now challenging Keng Yaik and Liong Sik to a serried of public debates other wild, baseless and irresponsible allegations that the DAP wants to create an Islamic State by co-operating with PAS.
I am prepared to debate with Keng Yaik and Liong Sik together, or separately. I suggest that the debates be in different languages in different parts of the country, and each debate should last for at least four to five hours each.
I am throwing this challenge to both Keng Yaik and Liong Sik in the full belief that they do not dare to accept, even if it is two versus one, because they are standing on falsehoods which do not bear examination and debate.
This is the first time that the Gerakan President and the MCA President are being challenged to debate, either jointly (giving them strength in each other’s company) or separately, in a series of country-wide debated in Mandarin, English and Bahasa Malaysia.
The subject of debates had been the favourite topic of the Gerakan and MCA Presidents for the past months. Do they have the courage of their convictions, or they lack conviction altogether in their allegations that the DAP wants to create an Islamic State?
If Keng Yaik and Liong Sik, or either one of them, dare to accept this challenge to a public debate on their allegations of DAP wanting to create an Islamic State by so-operating with PAS, we can then leave to our respective representatives to finalise the details of this nation-wide series of public debates, which should begin in mid-May or the third week of this month.