Lim shocked to see himself in kopiah

(The Sun Daily) – Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng was shocked to find flyers with a doctored picture of him wearing a kopiah (skull cap) being distributed in the Balik Pulau area recently.

“This is a campaign of defamation and lies by certain quarters. I have not worn a kopiah as it is a religious item,” he said, adding that the state may lodge a police report on this matter.

The coloured flyer, entitled “Warta Berita Dari Anak Pendatang” (news from the son of a migrant), showed a doctored picture of Lim, PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Penang state assembly speaker Datuk Abdul Halim Hussain wearing skull caps.

The picture was captioned: “Lim Guan Eng sanggup melakukan apa saja menarik sokongan orang Melayu termasuk memakai kopiah pada acara suatu majlis bersama Anwar Ibrahim di Pulau Pinang baru-baru ini”. (Lim Guan Eng is willing to do anything to attract the support of the Malays, including wearing a skull cap to an event with Anwar Ibrahim in Penang recently).

“My officer found out when the picture was taken, and all of us were not wearing any kopiah,” he said this at a press conference in Komtar today.

The photo showed to newsmen at the press conference was taken in June last year, when Anwar was in Komtar for the opening of the state government surau in Komtar. All there of them were not wearing skull caps.

Lim, who is also the DAP secretary-general, said that the flyers have been circulated in villages, mosques and bus stops in Balik Pulau since last week.

“We want to inform the public not to believe what the flyer shows,” he said, adding that the state government is unaware who had doctored the picture for the flyer.

“We need to fight all these racists,” he said. “They have resorted to using such methods when they do not know what else to do.”