The home minister should be reminded of the axiom that if a person tells a lie, he would have to tell a thousand lies to cover up the original lie.

And this, according to veteran DAP leader Lim Kit Siang, appears to be the dilemma in which Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has put himself in.

The DAP adviser was responding to Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein ( right ), who stated that he never wrote letters to the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in support for any individual now or during his time as home minister.

Last week, Zahid - who courted controversy for writing a letter to the FBI regarding alleged Malaysian gambling kingpin Paul Phua - said that his predecessors had also penned such clarification letters.

“Has Zahid been caught red-handed telling a lie, unfairly, unjustly and dishonourably implicating other ministers whether of this administration or previous regimes?” asked Lim.

The Gelang Patah MP also revealed that he did not believe previous home ministers would have behaved like Zahid.

“Writing unilaterally to the FBI without the knowledge of the inspector-general of police at the time, contradicting earlier police reports to the FBI, as well as (acting) without the knowledge or clearance from the Foreign Ministry.

“This would be the conduct of a disgraceful and shambolic government, with ministers acting with indiscipline, wild and in an arbitrary fashion, betraying and disgracing the national trust imposed on them in their appointment as home ministers in the cabinet,” he added.

   

Lim reiterated his call on other previous home ministers, including Dr Mahathir Mohamad ( left ) and Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, to come clean like Hishammuddin has.   

He also said national interests demand that the whole truth about Zahid’s infamous letter to the FBI be fully revealed.

“Or Zahid should expect to be impaled on the issue during the Parliament meeting in March,” he warned.