LETTER | Lim Kit Siang used to project himself as a man that seeks the truth, justice and righteousness. However, in time the truth prevails. His criticisms of Anwar Ibrahim, Dr Mahathir Mohammad, Muhyiddin Yassin, etc are all skin-deep and lacking in political conviction.

His many about-turns and selective memory or amnesia on the political villains of the century and decades of time-bombs that failed to explode show that he is prone to dramatics and sensationalism. What happened to the mega-scandals of Anwar Ibrahim and Dr Mahathir when they were in power?

All whitewashed or forgotten the minute these political “villains” allowed themselves to be embraced by Lim Kit Siang or DAP. It is interesting how divine mercy or pardon will be granted by Kit Siang to all past political enemies turned friendly.

The latest attempt by Kit Siang to exploit a single individual act of an MCA grassroots leader to seek an apology from a farmer who is perceived to have contravened the laws is “classic” Kit Siang in failing to see the wood for the trees or the forest for the trees.

For Kit Siang to exploit an individual act of party defiance to seek an apology from MCA national leaders leads me to question Kit Siang’s silence on these bigger issues of environmental disregard and overdevelopment in Penang governed by his son Lim Guan Eng and his party DAP.

Where was Lim Kit Siang when:

• DAP’s Tanjung Bungah assemblyperson Teh Yee Cheu said this on Oct 21: “The Penang government should be fully responsible for the landslide in Tanjung Bungah which buried 14 workers, three of whom have died. Teh, who has been critical of what he calls excessive development on the hills at Penang, urged the state to halt all projects for now. He pointed out that he had raised this issue numerous times at the state legislative assembly, only for the matter to fall on deaf ears.
•  Again, Teh and non-governmental organisations - Sahabat Alam Malaysia and the Consumers’ Association of Penang - expressed anguish over what they described as the megafloods after the Sept 15 incident. They also demanded the state government to stop blaming the heavy rainfall and poor drainage system as the cause of the floods.

Teh went a step further to allege that it is the lack of check and balance within DAP that had allowed the Penang government to do as they so wish without regard for the environment or the safety of the rakyat.

Where was Lim Kit Siang when all these issues were raised repeatedly by NGOs and even DAP’s own assemblyman?

Where was Lim Kit Siang when these issues of environmental abuses and overdevelopment were raised publicly in a high profile manner? 

My advice to Lim Kit Siang is: “Please look at your backyard and apologise to the people of Penang first before asking MCA leaders to apologise to an individual who may have trespassed the laws of the land.”

TI LIAN KER is the chairperson of the MCA Religious Harmony Bureau.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.