KUALA LUMPUR – DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang has shot back again at former colleague Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye’s claim of “backstabbing” by the party in 1990 by accusing Lee of doing a disappearing act just before the general election that year.
The 81-year-old Iskandar Puteri MP expressed regret that Lee had held on to his claim that he was controversially told not to contest in the Bukit Bintang parliamentary constituency that year.
In a recently launched biography, Lee, who had then been a successful elected rep there for four terms, was quoted as saying that the plan to remove him from the constituency led him to quit politics.
Lee, now 75, has been a social activist ever since.
“It is regrettable that Lam Thye has maintained his lie that I had asked him to contest elsewhere apart from Bukit Bintang, when this was not the case,” said Lim, now 81, who was DAP’s secretary-general in 1990.
“In retrospect, I believe Lam Thye knew that Parliament was to be dissolved in a week’s time and he made himself incommunicado by going overseas,” he added in a statement this morning.
Lim said that he was then acting as a mediator between Lee and DAP’s Federal Territories (FT) committee as Lee was convinced he was the target of an “insidious campaign” within the FT DAP involving certain leaders there.
He stressed that there was no discussion of Lee not contesting in Bukit Bintang.
“Furthermore, if it is true that I had told Lam Thye that he was not to be nominated for the Bukit Bintang constituency, it would be impossible to keep the news under wraps for 32 years – inside and outside DAP,” Lim said.
Yesterday, Lee was reported as standing firm by his recollection in the biography, reiterating that DAP’s political backstabbing had led him to leave the party.
He said that he had to quit after the party was adamant in not fielding him in Bukit Bintang for the 1990 general election.
“I can’t help it if some people have selective memories,” Lee was quoted as saying.
“I had said I quit the party because I was told by Lim that I would not be fielded to stand for the 1990 parliamentary elections in the Bukit Bintang constituency, of which I was the MP for four terms.”
Lim had yesterday accused Lee of lying about the circumstances that led to his exit from DAP,
In his fresh retort today, Lim said he has just learnt that young DAP leaders had met Lee before the 1990 polls to ask him to contest elsewhere instead of in Bukit Bintang.
He said that these suggestions were not made on behalf of the party leadership.
Lim noted that he had issued statements during that period of having “absolute confidence and faith” that Lee’s resignation as DAP’s FT chairman was not because he was considering joining another political party.
He had also then called up Tan Kok Wai, who was DAP’s Sungai Besi MP, to explain the party’s FT situation.
Lim also pointed to the record of him directing all DAP officials and members to not make any comments on the matter of Lee’s resignation to allow the situation to cool off.
“I have met Sdr. Lam Thye four times on his resignation as DAP’s Federal Territory chairman. I remain optimistic that a solution can be found to the problem, especially after a five-day cooling-off period,” Lim quoted himself as saying at a function on September 28, 1990.
He said that Lee announced his retirement the next day, exactly seven days before the dissolution of Parliament (on October 5) and went overseas to make himself “incommunicado”.
Lim also recounted telling a DAP function in Seremban on September 30, 1990, as follows: “However slim the chances, I will not give up in my endeavour to persuade Lam Thye to change his mind to retire from politics.”
At another party function in Batu Pahat that same day, he had said: “Lam Thye’s political retirement is a major setback for DAP and the struggle to bring about the two-coalition system in Malaysia”.
Lim noted today that Lee’s retirement announcement came in a “turbulent month” of September 1990.
He recalled that 10,000 people had demonstrated against the Cheras tolls, and Tan (who became DAP chairman in later years) was detained under the Internal Security Act. – The Vibes, June 19, 2022
