DPM Muhyiddin must apologize for insinuations against Guan Eng’s son

By N Surendran

I am astonished and appalled by the statement made on 22 October 2011 by Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin that Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s denial of sexual harassment claims against his son is inadequate and that ” mere denial is not enough”. By making such an irresponsible comment, Muhyiddin is clearly suggesting and insinuating that there may be truth in the accusations against Lim Guan Eng’s 16 year old schoolboy son.

How can the DPM make such a remark when the school headmaster and the alleged victim herself have denied that such a thing happened? It was a deliberate and calculated attempt by the DPM to keep alive the slander against Guan Eng’s son. The DPM’s conduct is thus no different from that of the malicious pro-UMNO bloggers and Umno Youth Chief Khairy Jamaluddin who instigated and perpetuated this vicious rumour about this innocent boy.
 
It has been proven beyond any doubt that Guan Eng’s son is completely innocent. Anya Corke, the young chess grandmaster who was supposedly sexually harassed by Guan Eng’s son has said that no such incident ever happened and that she does not even know the boy. She also expressed sympathy for the ordeal Guan Eng’s son had gone through. In doing so, young Anya Corke showed more maturity, generosity and decency than the Deputy Prime Minister of our country. Although she herself is hurting from the false allegations, she reached out a consoling hand to a boy across the oceans whom she had never heard of before this ugly incident.
 
It is extremely disturbing to note that slander and baseless character attacks of a sexual nature has become the norm for UMNO and the ruling Barisan Nasional pollitical coalition. Bankrupt of ideas and integrity, and widely seen as corrupt and oppressive, UMNO/BN  are relying for political survival on personal attacks, vulgar abuse and blatant falsehood. Another prominent victim of UMNO-inspired sex allegations is Malaysia’s parliamentary opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Resort to such disgraceful tactics degrades and embitters the national political discourse, and does a tremendous disservice to the people of this nation. It is increasingly clear that UMNO/BN will do practically anything and stoop to any depth simply to cling on to political power. We call upon the Deputy Prime Minister to immediately and unreservedly apologize to Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and his son for making such insinuations, and we demand that UMNO/BN forthwith cease the politics of slander and character assasination.   
 
Issued by:
N SURENDRAN
VICE PRESIDENT
KEADILAN