Amid speculation that DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang may contest the Johor Bahru parliamentary seat, incumbent Shahrir Abdul Samad says he has no qualms going toe-to-toe with Lim.

He noted it would be interesting to see how voters decide, because the demography of Johor Bahru is similar to that of Peninsular Malaysia as a whole.

“It will be good, I think, if you have someone like me representing BN, and then Lim representing DAP, and then voters can make a choice between two different kinds of politics and two different principles of governance.

“So, I think it will be quite good. I think it will be quite good in Johor Bahru,” he told a press conference at the Parliament complex today.

Shahrir said he had previously confronted Lim about the speculation that he would contest in Johor Bahru.

According to Shahrir, the DAP veteran had told him that the seat had been allocated to PKR.

“But I said, ‘Well, what DAP wants, DAP gets; what DAP wants, DAP takes’,” he said, pointing out that Lim and DAP did the same for Gelang Patah in the last general election.

Asked whether he was confirming that he would be defending Johor Bahru, Shahrir quipped: “They (BN) are not sending me anywhere else to ‘assassinate’ anyone.”

Shahrir served as the Johor Bahru MP from 1978 to 1990 and from 2004 until now. This includes the period from 1988 to 1990 when he served as an independent MP.

This totals to seven terms, including the term he secured after the 1988 Johor Bahru by-election that was triggered by his resignation to contest again as an independent.

Lim, meanwhile, has served for at least six different constituencies since the first became an MP in 1969.

'Wandering mercenaries'

Shahrir claimed that it was a still a mystery where the top Pakatan Harapan leaders would contest.

Unlike BN leaders that served the same constituency over a long period of time, he said opposition politicians commonly contest in various constituencies throughout their political careers.

“It is a mystery and a question that is not answered. As far as BN is concerned, we know what we are doing. We know where our leaders are standing, but the people do not know where the leaders of the other side are standing…

“So, you have this situation of the leaders of Pakatan Harapan not being certain where they are standing. That raises the question, what is their idea of being an MP?

“So this is a very interesting situation and I think no other country has this kind of politics where someone from Penang or someone from somewhere else is assigned to fight... oh, you go and attack this party leader.

"Only in Malaysia, you have these wandering mercenaries going around,” he said.

Not autocratic

Earlier during his speech to launch the book Malaysia Tanpa BN by Ahmad Faris Abdul Halim and Nasrudin Mohammed, Shahrir said BN was founded to restore democracy in the tumult following the May 13, 1969 racial riots.

He said despite accusations that BN was autocratic, this was not the case.

“Those who accuse BN of being autocratic or dictatorial should revisit the founding of BN, which was meant to restore democracy. If we are born to restore democracy, it can’t be us too that wants to destroy it.

Despite its strength, however, Shahrir warned that BN could be threatened if its leaders attacked key institutions of the country, such as in the 1988 judicial crisis that took place during then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s tenure.

This is in addition to Mahathir’s moves that culminated in Umno’s deregistration by the Registrar of Societies and the founding of Umno Baru.

Shahrir said these factors were why he won the 1988 Johor Bahru by-election as an independent contesting against BN.

“The rakyat would not allow it and had their chance to voice their opposition in the 1988 Johor Bahru by-election.

“That’s why when I contested against BN’s candidate under very difficult and suspicious circumstances, the rakyat agreed with me in the end, as a sign of protest against what a leader had done."