Johor DAP youth chief, Dr Boo Cheng Hau should be commended for his public service to the nation for exposing the ultimate secret about DAP's nearly mad obsession about the so-called 'Islamic state' issue recently.

Indeed, like Dr Mahathir Mohamad who once blamed all kinds of external forces for the economic and financial mismanagement of the country, Mr Lim Kit Siang is also using the same kind of trick to hide his failures as the paramount leader of DAP. It is called finding a scapegoat.

As a Penangite, let me also tell Mr Lim Kit Siang that his defeat in the last general elections was due to many reasons, not one.

First, many Penangites who had always supported DAP decided to teach the party a lesson for not strengthening its organisation even though it won handsomely in 1986 and 1990.

Second, many Penang voters were disappointed by the performance of Mr Lim Kit Siang because he seemed to have run out of fresh ideas, and yet continued to purge his party off talented leaders and even old loyalists like respected lawyer Gooi Hock Seng, and organiser, Teoh Teik Huat who helped Lim to enter Penang politics in 1982.

In other words, Lim was punished for his ungratefulness and perfidy to those who once helped him.

Third, many Penang voters were also angry with Karpal Singh for only appearing in the newspapers, but not his constituency; they felt that they should not elect a busy lawyer anymore; also, Karpal Singh had long been seen as getting more and more arrogant.

Fourth, many young voters in Penang were also not happy with Lim and Karpal Singh for taking their sons and daughters, like Lim Guan Eng and his wife Betty Chew, Lim Hui Ming, Gobind Singh Deo and his brother into the party's organisation while continuing to sack veterans and old loyalists like Gooi Hock Seng and Teoh Teik Huat.

Fifth, Lim and Karpal had already been perceived by many voters to have overstayed their posts. The thinking was that they should give way to others since 1995, and many who attended their ceramah thought that the ageing Lim and Karpal had lost their attractiveness and persuasiveness.

If the defeats of Lim and Karpal Singh were due to only one issue, i.e. the 'Islamic state', then why did this issue did not deter others like Chong Eng, Fong Po Kuan, Teresa Kok, Lim Hock Seng and other six DAP members of Parliament from winning? In fact, in terms of the number of seats, DAP won an additional one as compared with nine in 1995.

Penangites are just tired of Lim and Karpal who seem to think that they are the only two human beings on earth who are impervious to mistakes. It is really time for both of them to go honourably now, or to be defeated for a second time more ignominiously.