Amid the raging debate over political parties having links with the Washington-based International Republican Institute (IRI), Lim Kit Siang is wondering whether US President Donald Trump had turned his back on a friend.

The DAP veteran said such news of treachery towards former premier Najib Abdul Razak would make headlines around the world.

“Trump has been accused of all sorts of things but he has yet to be accused of betraying his best friend, which he would be guilty of if he had allowed IRI, a think-tank of his Republican party, to help topple Trump's 'favourite prime minister' and 'golfing buddy', with Najib having a signed photograph of Trump on his desk when he was prime minister,” he added in a statement.

According to Lim, this would also qualify as “the international joke of the year.”

The Iskandar Puteri MP said he is waiting to hear from Najib whether Trump had been guilty of deceit towards him.

“While we wait for Najib to speak up, let me declare that DAP had not received a single sen from IRI or from any foreign sources throughout our 52-year history unlike Umno which claimed receipt of an RM2.6 billion donation from a foreign source without yet referring to other sources of foreign funding,” he added.

Lim also pointed to IRI's statement denying that it collaborated with Malaysian opposition parties to undermine BN prior to the May 9 general election or that it provided financial assistance to these parties.

“IRI said it provided non-partisan capacity building support to parties across the political spectrum in the form of direct training workshops and consultations with both the Harapan and BN coalitions.

“I understand that IRI had also worked with BN component parties like MCA and Gerakan,” he added.

Earlier, Gerakan vice-president A Kohilan Pillay denied the allegation that his party, which quit BN in the aftermath of the 14th general election, was involved with IRI.

Speaking to reporters at the Parliament lobby this afternoon, Najib demanded a government inquiry into the Harapan-IRI link.

According to the former premier, this was far more serious than the CIA letter controversy, which led certain quarters to accuse his administration of treason.

After Trump won the US presidential elections in 2016, BBC had reported about Najib being his golfing buddy and quoted a spokesperson from the latter's office as stating that the Malaysian leader had a signed photograph of Trump and himself on his desk.

Trump, according to the report, had inscribed the photograph "To my favourite PM".

Following this, Najib's wife Rosmah Mansor had revealed how she was woken up by a pre-dawn telephone call informing her that Trump wanted to speak to her husband.