Taib must resign now, says DAP
By Clara Chooi, The Malaysian Insider
KUCHING, April 11 — The DAP upped the ante on Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s promise to voters last night that Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud’s Sarawak reign will soon end, saying today the chief minister “must resign now” to prove his sincerity.
DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said it was unlikely that Taib — the state’s longest-serving chief minister — would quit as some other Sarawak Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders have reneged on similar promises.
“The proof (of the eating) is in the pudding. If you say he wants to resign, show me the letter.
“He must resign now,” Lim told reporters, referring to Taib, who had promised that this campaign will be his last.
The Penang chief minister was commenting on Najib’s attempt last night to convince voters here that Taib would stick to his retirement plan.
The BN chairman and prime minister told a crowd at a 1 Malaysia meet-the-leaders rally in the Kuching South City Hall indoor stadium that a fresh leadership lineup was on the cards for the Sarawak state government should BN be given the mandate again.
“Ladies and gentlemen, do not worry. We have made plans so that a change will happen in the Sarawak top leadership, a planned and organised change.”If we make a shock change, a state of uncertainty will ensue,” he had said.
But Lim discredited the promise and told the Prime Minister to explain why Sarawak’s deputy chief minister Tan Sri George Chan Hong Nam had failed to his retirement plan in 2006.
“ You know what George Chan said? He said he will resign in one year in 2006.
“How come the PM does not want to explain. Why is it George Chan in 2006 said he will resign in one year and yet now he is still standing for elections and with a new wife in tow of course. Explain George Chan’s failure to fulfil his promise,” said Lim.
He added that Najib’s explanation last night was clear proof that the leader was aware that the people were unconvinced over Taib’s sincerity.
Even the BN’s leaders in government were not unconvinced, he said.
“That forced Najib to, everytime he is here, say that yes he (Taib) will really step down, he will really step down, he will really step down. Like what Shakespeare said that ‘the lady doth protest too much, methinks’,” he said.
Prior to nomination day, the embattled Taib who is facing countless allegations of corruption had announced in public that he would step down soon after the polls.
He said he would make way for “new blood” from among the leaders in the Sarawak BN ranks but failed to give himself a deadline.
Later, the powerful leader said his retirement would only occur in three years’ time, drawing flak from politicians across the divide.
Lim also described Najib’s six-day campaign in Sarawak as “unprecedented”, pointing out that BN’s campaigns in Sarawak typically involved little or no intervention from its federal leaders from the peninsular.
