In the escalating war of words between rivals DAP and Gerakan, the former fired another salvo accusing Gerakan party president Dr Lim Keng Yaik of having a knack for talking before thinking.

Dr Lim has a knack for talking before thinking and he appears to have mastered that art, said DAP national deputy chairperson Karpal Singh in a statement today.

Karpal was responding to a denial by Lim in todays The Star that he had raised the issue of DAP secretary-general Kerk Kim Hock holding a meeting with PAS leaders in Jakarta in 1990 to form an electoral pact, at a time when relations between both parties were strained.

In the report, Kerk denied having met with PAS leaders in Jakarta and expressed shock that the matter was brought up again after 10 years by Lim and demanded an apology from him.

The matter was further complicated when Lim challenged Kerk to take him to court as DAP national chairperson Lim Kit Siang had done over the same issue 12 years ago in which the Gerakan leader claimed to have won.

Lim had said that DAP had run out of issues and was using the matter to turn into a personal vendetta.

However, Karpal clarified that when Kit Siang took Lim to court the matter was later dismissed as the judge had refused an adjournment of the trial.

Repeat allegation challenge

As the trial did not proceed on the merits, in no way can Dr Lim consider himself vindicated.

I challenge Dr Lim to repeat the allegation he made against Kerk last Wednesday, as what was reported and attributed to Dr Lim was not corrected immediately by him or anyone else on his behalf, Karpal said.

Gerakans Yum Ah Ha is scheduled to face DAPs Choong Siew Onn in the Ketari state seat by-election at the end of the month.

The seat fell vacant following the death of BN representative Loke Koon Kam on March 3. In the last general elections, the Gerakan candidate defeated Choong by a majority of 231.

Ketari has 17,143 registered voters of whom 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).