Gerakan president Dr Lim Keng Yaik unleashed a barrage of criticisms against Ketari by-election rival DAP today for harping on matters that go as far back as 1990.

Lim said the latest outburst by DAP secretary-general Kerk Kim Hock showed that the DAP was bankrupt of issues and is attempting to turn the Ketari by-election into a personal vendetta against Gerakan.

In yesterdays The Star , Kerk said that Lim should apologise or retract allegations that the opposition leader had met with a representative from Muslim-based PAS in Jakarta to form a electoral pact before the 1990 general elections.

Kerk lamented that Ketari would be a dirty by-election since Lim was willing to repeat a 12-year-old lie to obtain votes.

The daily added that the Gerakan leader made the accusation in Bentong on Friday. Lim, who is also the Primary Industries minister, however, today claimed that he had not made such remarks

I denied making the allegation pertaining to the 1990 matter as I have no proof. The ex-DAP member who said it has since died, Lim told the press at the Parliament lobby.

Toilet paper

We have defeated two DAP big guns — Lim Kit Siang (Bukit Bendera) and Karpal Singh (Jelutong) — in the 1999 general election and he (Kerk) as the new secretary-general is seeking vengeance, Lim added.

He added that he would like to remind Kerk that when another liar accusation was made in 1990 involving himself and Kit Siang, who is the partys previous secretary-general, the matter was taken to court.

I would like to remind the DAP secretary-general, who has neither the experience nor the stature of Lim Kit Siang, that the latter had lost the case when I called him a liar at the High Court and Federal Court and had to pay cost to the Gerakan president, he said.

Dont raise anything when there is nothing, and if he (Kerk) calls me a liar and in so far as such, I have no hesitation to call him a liar, he added

When approached, Kerk refused to be drawn into trading barbs with Lim. He also said that he was prepared to have his passport checked by the Home Affairs ministry to back his claim that he was not in Jakarta before he 1990 general elections.

Later, at the Parliament lobby, Lim shook hands with Kerk and urged the opposition party to conduct a gentleman fight in Ketari.

Lim then took several swipes at The Star for misquoting him, saying he does not read the paper.

When Kerk said he would sent a copy of the paper to Lims house, the Gerakan leader said he would ask him wife not to buy "toilet paper".

Commodity farmers

Meanwhile, Lim also said Gerakan was confident in retaining the Ketari state seat as most of the voters are small-scale commodity farmers and the prices of three main commodities — rubber, palm oil and cocoa — has been on the rise.

Lim said the government, under the Barisan Nasional coalition, has made efforts to improve the situation for the three commodities.

The by-election, on March 31, is expected to be a straight fight between Gerakans Yum Ah Ha and DAPs Choong Siew Onn. Nomination day is March 23.

The by-election is held following the death of BN assemblyman Loke Koon Kam on March 3. In the last general elections, the Gerakan representative defeated Choong by a majority of 231.

Ketari has 17,143 registered voters, of which 95 are postal votes. Chinese Malaysians comprise 53.83 percent (9,228) of the constituency, Malay Malaysians 39.12 percent (6,706) and Indian Malaysians 5.21 percent (843).

The Orang Asli comprise 1.3 percent (223), bumiputra from Sabah and Sarawak 0.21 percent (36) and others 0.33 percent (57).