Kit Siang: Are there no gentlemen left in Umno?

Published: May 30, 2014 12:00 PM | Updated: May 30, 2014 9:46 PM

TELUK INTAN Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang is fuming over the way the BN's campaign in the Teluk Intan by-election has been hijacked by low-class, vulgar-mouthed politicians in Umno.

Lim, who has been an MP for more than four decades, said he was aghast as to why Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud has drawn numerous sexist statements and gangster threats from Umno ministers and deputy ministers in the by-election, even though Umno is not contesting.

TELUK INTAN Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang is fuming over the way the BN's campaign in the Teluk Intan by-election has been hijacked by low-class, vulgar-mouthed politicians in Umno.

The BN candidate, Gerakan president Mah Siew Keong, has distanced himself from the comments made by Umno ministers in the run-up to the polling tomorrow.

"The baseless, vicious and slanderous attacks on DAP candidate Dyana Sofya are just gross and simply unimaginable, highlighting the total lack of chivalry among the male political leaders in Umno," Lim said in a press statement today.

"The Umno leadership has been stripped completely naked as belonging to a shockingly low-class political genre."

The women leaders in Umno were no better with their pettiness and failure to defend Dyana, he added.

Lim said Umno's strategy was to break political newbie Dyana, so that "she will fly the ‘white flag’ of surrender even before the may 31 polling day".

Fake photographs

As examples, Lim noted the circulation of fake photographs of Dyana in a swim suit (they were actually doctored from pictures of Filipino actress Pauleen Luna), first on social media and then distributed in the Malay villages.

Then came the “lipstick” fantasy of Umno Housing Minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan; the puerile attacks by Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and then the boast by Deputy Finance Minister Ahmad Maslan that his wife or the wife of Deputy Agro-based Industry Minister Tajuddin Abdul Rahman would win in a beauty contest against Dyana.

And this was followed with Kedah Mentri Besar Mukhriz Mahathir's obsession with the different clothes worn by Dyana.

"A parliamentary by-election is a contest of the vision for the future, not an exchange of epithets, which is why I have not said a single unkind word against Mah," Lim said in DAP's defence.

"It is sad that Gerakan, Umno and BN leaders think that the only way to get votes in Teluk Intan is to run down Dyana and launch personal attacks against her," he added.

Gerakan’s Mah has also called this the dirtiest campaign he has ever experienced in a tit-for-tat comment yesterday.

Citing numerous reports of vandalism, including the word 'bodoh' spray painted on his posters, Mah told reporters that he too was disappointed by the slander and lies being spread around.

Knowing that Dyana, a law graduate who was his former political secretary, may come under strong attack, Lim said, "Dyana has 3Bs but we nominated her as a candidate for her 2Bs of brains and bravery.

"Do they know that the current DAP MP for Batu Kawan, Kasturi Patto, was my political secretary for less than a year before she was nominated as a parliamentary candidate in the 13th general election?"

Lim said that among his political secretaries who have made their mark in the country were former Tanjong MP and currently senior Penang executive councillor exco Chow Kon Yeow and the MP for Seputeh and former senior Selangor exco member Teresa Kok.

Others were the current senior Selangor exco member Teng Chang Khim; former DAP secretary-general and MP Kerk Kim Hock; ‘Superman’ Hew Kuan Yaw; and also the late P Patto, who was an outstanding MP and Perak assemblyperson.

Related stories

Man slaps DAP assemblyperson's wife

Indian voters 'offered' land application forms

BN ups its game with 'Mah as minister' promise

Mah: I'll be minister as MP, not senator

DPM: Opposition shows no respect for late sultan

DAP: BN also campaigned after sultan's passing

Ahmad denies eluding the press in Teluk Intan