DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang is seeking a thorough and professional probe into why the opposition party had failed to retain the Kota Melaka parliamentary seat in the recently concluded general election.

Describing the loss of the DAP stronghold as shocking, Lim said he would have gone to campaign in Kota Melaka had he known that the seat was in danger of falling to BN hands.

"Just before polling day, I had asked DAP secretary-general Kerk Kim Hock who was standing for re-election what was the political situation in Kota Melaka, and he told me that there should be no problem in retaining the 35-year DAP fortress," said Lim in a statement.

"If I had known that the Kota Melaka parliamentary seat was in danger, I would have definitely made a trip to Melaka to campaign for Kerk," said the party supremo, who did not visit Kota Melaka during the eight-day campaigning period in the recent polls.

DAP had held the seat since 1969 until Kerk was defeated on March 21 by BN/MCA candidate Wong Wai Chee by a mere 219 votes. Kerk bagged 30,998 votes while Wong polled 31,217 votes.

His defeat was the only black mark in an otherwise successful election outing for the party which won 12 parliament seats in all - which also saw the return of Lim to parliament after a lapse of five years. He won the Ipoh Timor seat by a whopping 9,774 votes majority.

In the aftermath of the defeat, Kerk relinquished his party post and subsequently blamed internal sabotage for his defeat.

This only aggravated an open fallout with other party leaders in the state.

Factional rivalry in the state has been a long standing issue, with Kerk having to placate state chief Sim Tong Him in one hand and former Kota Melaka MP Lim Guan Eng and wife Betty Chew, the state assemblyperson for Kota Laksamana, on the other.

Guan Eng is also Kit Siang's son. It is believed that Lim made the statement today to dispel rumours that he had sided with his son and daughter-in-law in Malacca DAP's factional squabble.

Wrong move

Lim further added that if he was made aware of the shaky ground situation in Kota Melaka, he would not have agreed to let Sim, a rival to Guan Eng, to move out of his Bandar Hilir state seat to contest in the Ayer Keroh state seat.

Bandar Hilir state seat falls under the Kota Melaka parliamentary seat. Sim's move to Ayer Keroh also proved perilous as he was defeated by BN/MCA candidate Seah Kwi Tong by 2,987 votes. Sim bagged 6,562 votes compared to Seah's 9,549.

Lim said that he only agreed with Sim's move "to try to achieve a new breakthrough for the DAP as it is a good example for DAP leaders to move from their incumbent seats to serve a larger strategic objective."

The veteran leader said that he himself had held steadfast to this belief, resulting in him moving five times to new parliamentary constituencies and six times to new state assembly constituencies.

"But never once did I move or shift from one parliamentary or state assembly seat to another in order to fight in an easier and more comfortable constituency. And never once did I make the move by endangering the electoral chances for the party in the incumbent seat that I was leaving."

"This was why I could appreciate Sim's proposal to shift from Bandar Hilir to Ayer Keroh, to win a new seat for the DAP but this was of course always subject to clear proviso that it would not endanger the Kota Melaka parliamentary seat," he said..