Penang BN chief Teng Chang Yeow was in stitches today over Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s remark that he had been deceived by the former.

“This is the biggest joke of the 13th general election,” said Teng in an immediate response to Lim.

“I feel sorry for him, more so I feel sorry for DAP,” he added during a press conference at the BN operations centre in Penang today.

Teng said he had clearly showed in his statement yesterday of the flow of events leading to Lim challenging him.

He added that he had accepted Lim’s challenge  after a KiniTV interview when he said “it was up to him (Lim) to contest against me”.

NONE However, Teng ( centre in photo ) had set two conditions when the DAP secretary-general accepted his offer - that he decides the seat and that Lim contests only a state seat.

To this, Lim accepted the bait but insisted on Padang Kota, after which Teng invited him to contest a multiracial seat.

Teng had been a state assemblyperson in Padang Kota for three terms.

Today, Lim ended the challenge when he said he was deceived by Teng, adding that he will end the “circus” performance.

But Teng said as a leader of a multiracial party and one who has been propagating that he represents all Malaysians, he does not see why Lim “dare not” contest in a mixed seat.

When asked why he was not applying the same “multiracial” logic to his boss, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, urging him to contest a mixed seat instead of sticking to Pekan, a Malay-majority constituency, Teng said, “He can challenge him.”

“He (Lim) cannot be rhetorical about being a Malaysian leader and yet dare not face a multi-racial composition seat. How could he now proclaim himself to be a Malaysian leader?” he asked.

“I have been stressing that this contest is about policies and not about individuals.

“At last, he concurred with me that this contest is about BN’s and Pakatan’s policies. Mr Lim, it is better late than never.”

'He's also a circus performer'

Asked to respond to Lim labelling him a “circus performer”, Teng shot back, “Then why did he jump into the ring?”

azlan “Doesn’t that also makes him a circus performer?”

He brushed aside Lim’s allegations that he is an Umno representative, saying, “DAP has been always accused every leader from Lim Chong Eu’s time as subservient (to the Malay party).

“I don’t think this is a circus, if it is how come he jumped into the ring? That means he is also a circus performer.

“Even his dad, the DAP supremo, has said he would contest under PAS, but Gerakan and MCA have never once said we will contest on an Umno ticket,” he quipped.

Kit Siang, who will contest the Gelang Patah seat in Johor, said it in context of the possibility that DAP would be deregistered by the Registrar of Societies ahead of the elections over a technical glitch in the party’s internal election results last December.

Guan Eng-Chang Yeow contest off in Penang