DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang has laughed off calls for a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) on the so-called Red Bean Army, calling on the cabinet to set up a RCI on electoral fraud instead.

"If cabinet sets up a RCI on the alleged DAP-funded 'Red Bean Army', Malaysia will make history as the first country in the world which establishes a RCI on a fictitious allegation," Lim said in a statement yesterday.

NONE Lim was responding to Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Shahidan Kassim's ( left in photo ) intention to propose the establishment of the RCI at the cabinet meeting this Friday.

The proposal was made by a coalition of 130 NGOs who claim that the Red Bean Army was DAP's well-funded online propaganda machine that has raised racial tensions and created political instability.

Lim said that the allegations that DAP was spending millions of ringgit to maintain the Red Bean Army was ludicrous.

"I do not believe that any Umno/BN leader of even minimum intelligence would believe in the tall tale of the DAP-funded army of 3,000 cybertroopers with a budget ranging from RM100 million to RM1 billion." said Lim.

Ploy by Umno cybertroopers to raise fund

However, should there be a RCI to look into electoral fraud, Lim said he would throw his full weight behind it.

"I will support a RCI on why it was not a ‘clean, free and fair' election, with results generally regarded as undemocratic and unrepresentative of the will of the electorate," he said, referring to the May 5 general election.

NONE "But these claims of a 'Red Bean Army' are just fictitious."

Last Thursday, Lim ( left ) told the Dewan Rakyat that Red Bean Army story had been invented by "vested interests" within Umno as a ploy to seek more funding.

"Last Thursday I alluded to a campaign by the Umno cyberwarriors for a RM250 million allocation to fight the imaginary DAP-funded 'Red Bean Army'.

"But I made a RM100 million mistake - in fact, the figure being asked for is RM350 million!"