Amid cracks in the Pakatan Rakyat, DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang is not certain whether the opposition coalition can survive until the 14th general election.

 

Kit Siang admitted that all was not well in the coalition, which has not met in almost half a year.

 

"If you ask me whether I can categorically say that the tripartite Pakatan will be around to fight the 14th general election, I cannot answer you as I do not know.

 

"It is no secret that things have not been well in Pakatan, and this is why the Pakatan leadership council has not been able to meet for over six months to reaffirm Pakatan's common policy framework and the consensus principle...

"(These) are the two key prerequisites to save Pakatan and restore public confidence in it," he said in a statement today.

 

Kit Siang (left) had before this shied away from weighing into the troubled coalition while his son and DAP secretary-general, Lim Guan Eng, criticised PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang for refusing to attend the Pakatan leadership council meetings.

 

In a response, Hadi merely said it was up to him to decide whether he wanted to attend the meeting or not.

 

Noting that Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had admitted that only a two percent vote swing will spell BN’s defeat in GE14, Kit Siang said he hoped Pakatan would survive to create that swing.

 

He said the majority of Malaysians wanted to continue to support Pakatan, but only if the coalition remains faithful to its common policy framework and consensus.

'Big lie'

Kit Siang also said the "big lie" by Umno that Malays would lose power without the party must be challenged.

 

He added that the prime minister and his two surviving predecessors, who have held power for a total of 33 years, should prove Umno’s claims that Malays are under threat.

 

"It is then the patriotic duty of all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region, to unite to expose the big lie which will be the greatest poison of united Malaysian nation-building.”