By Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Thursday, August 5, 1993:
DAP reiterates that it does not interfere in UMNO affairs but warns UMNO leaders not to claim ‘immunity’ to be free from criticism for actions detrimental to nation and people
Yesterday, three UMNO leaders, namely UMNO Vice President, Datuk Sei Anwar Ibrahim, UMNO Youth leader, Datuk NAJIB Tun Razak and the Malacca Chief Minister, Tan Sri Rahim Tamby Cik, all accused the DAP of interfering in UMNO’s internal affairs because I had wanted to move an emergency motion in PARLIAMENT YESTERDAY TO DETERMINE WHETHER Ghafar Baba still enjoyed the confidence of Parliament, particularly the majority of UMNO MPs.
DAP wants to reiterate that it does not interfere in UMNO affairs and has no intention of getting involved in the UMNO ‘Battle of the Decade’ between the Ghafar Baba and Anwar Ibrahim camps.Whether Ghafar Baba or Anwar Ibrahim become the UMNO Deputy President in the UMNO November elections is a matter strictly for the UMNO delegates to decade and has nothing to do with the DAP.
However, DAP also wants to warn UMNO leaders not to claim ‘immunity’ to be free from criticisms for actions detrimental to nation and people, by the baseless allegation that such criticisms are intefering with UMNO’s internal affairs.
As the Malay Rulers have lost their criminal and civil ‘immunities’, no UMNO leader should now try to assert such ‘immunities’ but must be prepared to be held responsible and accountable for their actions.
I am not interested whether the majority of the UMNO MPs support Anwar Ibrahim for the post of UMNO Deputy President, but where such public pledge of support tantamount to an expression of no confidence in Ghafar Baba as Deputy Prime Minister, then it becomes a national issue and not just UMNO issue as to whether Ghafar Baba can continue to be an effective and credible Deputy Prime Minister.
Rahim Tamby Cik wants to use his contest for UMNO Youth Leader to claim that Lim Guan Eng’s revelations of his accumulation of unaccountable unusual wealth and assets is interfering in UMNO affairs
I know for instance that Tan Sri Rahim Tamby Cik wants to use his contest for UMNO Youth Leader to claim that the revelations by DAPSY National Chairman and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Guan Eng, about his accumulation of unaccountable unusual wealth and assets is an interference in UMNO affairs.
In actual fact, Rahim Tamby Cik declared his candidacy for the UMNO Youth Leader on 12th July 1993, while Lim Guan Eng has started his revelations of Rahim Tamby Cik’s unusual and unaccountable wealth and assets three months earlier in April.
I know that Anwar’s camp is claiming that in the recent Parliamentary meeting, I had decided to focus attack on Anwar in order to help Ghafar Baba.
There is no basis in such claim whatsoever. It has never been the DAP practice to focus attack on any UMNO or Barisan Nasional leader in Parliament, for we have no intention of helping Ghafar Baba or Anwar Ibrahim. What we say in Parliament is influenced solely by the issues before Parliament and the political situation.
In fact, in the first two days of the recent Parliament on July 19 and 20, during the Constitution Amendment Bill debate, I severely criticised Ghafar Baba as he was responsible for tabling the Bill in Parliament.
Was I critising Ghafar Baba in order to help Anwar in the fight for the Deputy UMNO President’s post?
Anwar’s boys’ in the mass media were wholly responsible for the turn of events in the last two weeks in Parliament where Anwar seemed to be target of my attacks
I admit that in the second and third week of the recent Parliamentary meeting, there was an impression that I had changed target and switched from Ghafar to Anwar Ibrahim.
This again is completely baseless. Any parliamentary observer would know that the turn of events in the second and third week of Parliament was completely the creation of Anwar Ibrahim and his ‘boys’ in the mass media.
If Anwar Ibrahim had not issued a challenge to me during my speech on the Sewerage Services Bill on July 22 to repeat outside Parliament what I had not said, and if the Anwar ‘newspaper’ had not tried to distort the event in order to give Anwar Ibrahim political mileage at me expense, Anwar Ibrahim and his ‘boys’ in the mass media would not have featured so prominently in my speeches during the latter part of the recent Parliament.
I hope Anwar Ibrahim could dispassionately analyse and understand that his ‘boys’ in the mass media must bear total responsibility for the turn of events in Parliament, and not to take the simple but dishonest way out by blaming the DAP for ‘interesting in UMNO affairs’.