JOHOR BAHARU, April 1 – Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (pic)has called on the various communities in Johor to ensure that the 13th general election (GE13) will end DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang’s political career. He also called on the people of Malaysia to end the political career of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) advisor Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and PAS spiritual leader Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat through the ballot box in the GE13 to be held soon.
“Lim Kit Siang wants to come here (to contest). I call on the people of Johor, all communities should pool their energy to ensure that the state of Johor will be the ‘burial ground’ for Lim Kit Siang’s politics.
“We must ensure that he (Kit Siang) loses in Johor. The state of Johor will continue to become the ‘fixed deposit’ for BN (Barisan Nasional),” he said at the programme ‘Bicara Minda’ organised by the Pulai Parliamentary Constituency’s
Service Centre which was attended by about 5,000 people last night.
The DAP advisor recently decided to contest the Gelang Patah Parliamentary seat in Johor in an effort by the opposition pact (PR) to penetrate the state, a BN stronghold. Dr Mahathir said Kit Siang wanted the people to ‘Change” and “Transform” the present government led by the BN, but in actual fact, it was the DAP veteran leader that should be changed.
He said Kit Siang had been in politics for too long, beginning in 1964 when he was the political secretary to DAP founder, Devan Nair, who was a former president of Singapore.
“We have changed six prime ministers since the Independence in 1957, but he had never changed. Give his children or grandchildren a chance,” he said. Dr Mahathir said Anwar too should be rejected because the PKR leader was only interested in becoming prime minister and he was prepared to do anything to achieve his goal.
When Malaysia was facing the financial crisis in 1997, he said Anwar merely listened to the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Michel Camdessus, and World Bank president James Wolfensohn to the extent that the country’s economy was “destabilised”.
“I felt that he (Anwar) wanted to destroy the country (then), that’s why I took over and we took our own measure (to revive the national economy) using our own mould,” said Dr Mahathir.
The former prime minister said he also felt the PKR advisor knew that he would lose in GE13, as such, he was preparing to create a commotion and chaos. As for Nik Abdul Aziz, Dr Mahathir said the PAS spiritual leader should be retiring from politics. Dr Mahathir advised PAS to focus its attention to Kelantan instead of taking the trouble to penetrate Johor because the party had no influence in the state.
BERNAMA
