Will Sungai Limau be the end of Mahathirism, asks Kit Siang

Will Sungai Limau be the end of Mahathirism, asks Kit Siang

November 03, 2013

Malaysian Insider

With less than 24 hours to go before Sungai Limau goes to the polls, DAP’s Lim Kit Siang questioned whether this by-election will mark the end of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's political influence.

Dr Mahathir is currently in Sungai Limau campaigning for Barisan Nasional, where his son, Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir is leading the ruling coalition’s charge for the state seat.

Lim questioned whether Dr Mahathir and his brand of politics, which he calls "Mahathirism", will suffer a third and probably final setback in six months since the 13th general election.

“This will be the case if PAS and Pakatan Rakyat candidate Mohd Azam Samad wins the seat, and even better, with an increased majority.

"This will be the best political news for the country,” Lim said in an opinion piece today.

Lim pointed out that Dr Mahathir’s first setback was when he was unable to deliver victory for the “lunatic fringe” in the form of Malay rights group Perkasa chief Datuk Ibrahim Ali and its vice-chief Datuk Zulkifli Noordin for the Shah Alam and Pasir Mas parliamentary seats, respectively, in the May polls.

“In fact, the Shah Alam Umno division chief said after the general election that if Dr Mahathir had not campaigned in Shah Alam, BN might have earned more votes,” he said.

Lim (pic) said the second setback for Dr Mahathir and Mahathirism was in the Umno polls last month, when the former statesman blamed money politics for the failure of Mukhriz to win one of the vice-presidency posts.

On Dr Mahathir’s revelations last week that the "lunatic fringe" had taken hold of Malaysia as BN struggled to deal with diminished public support, Lim said the former premier was partly right in his assessment but rejected claims that extremist groups came from Pakatan Rakyat.

"In fact, D Mahathir has himself become the very personification of the extremist 'lunatic fringe' holding the 'moderate majority' to ransom with their 'lunatic' lies and falsehoods, undermining and even sabotaging the country’s nation-building, national unity and national development,” he said.

Lim claimed that throughout the campaigning period for the Sungai Limau by-election, voters have been inundated with lies, falsehoods and character assassinations from Umno and BN, including allegations that DAP is anti-Malay, anti-Islam and had wanted to form a Christian state as well as abolish the monarchy. - November 3, 2013.