lim guan eng comments on keshvinder quit dap 160610 Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has likened the recent DAP defection in Perak to a football game.

Using the World Cup as an example, Lim ( right ) said a team must win through “legal goals”.

“We win seats because of the support of the people. In winning by polemics, (it is as in football where) the goals are won not by kicking them, but by (handling) the ball,” Lim told a press conference in Penang today.

“The question is, who is behind this? In fixed games, when goals are scored, it is the hands of the bookies who are behind the victories,” he added.

He was responding to the recent defection of Keshvinder Singh (Malim Nawar) yesterday.     

hee yit foong pc at kl 050409 02 He is the second Perak DAP state assemblyperson to do so since Hee Yit Foong (Jelapang) ( left ) in February last year.

Lim, who is DAP secretary-general, said he was surprised when he received Keshvinder’s resignation letter yesterday.

He had no previous knowledge of the assemblyperson’s predicament, and neither was he aware that Keshvinder was facing financial problems.

Betraying the voters

Continuing the football analogy, Lim said players do not switch sides out of the blue.

“Can you do that? Just because the other side is better, you leave and play for them? It is against the rules,” he said.

“You have to leave the team, leave the game ... as football rules do not permit that. Because if it is allowed, people can just simply leave their teams and play for another half-way through the competition,” he stressed.

Lim said that although defections are not allowed in Malaysian politics, it is condoned.

“If people want to leave the party, they will give you a thousand reasons but none is acceptable,” he added.                    

“When these defectors stood for elections, the DAP was not in government yet, so they knew the challenges which they were going to face,” he added.

Lim condemned the luring of DAP candidates to jump ship by certain quarters.

Will recover the seat

“I think the people can see for themselves, they can decide in the next general election. Let the people judge,” he said.        

“We will ask the people to return the seat to the DAP in the next general election. There is no honour in this kind of defections,” he added.

He added that he is disappointed by the current developments because it shows that the defectors have no shame, principles or integrity.    

“It is also against democratic principles, because he (Keshvinder) won on a DAP seat, because of DAP’s principles and political struggles, based on the support of the people towards the DAP, not on his own,” said Lim.        

“So this seat belongs to DAP and by leaving the party he has betrayed the people’s trust. It is different if he had won the ticket as an Independent,” he added.

VIDEO | 5 mins