I don’t want to see you rot in jail, Lim tells Dr M
(Harakah) – DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang has scoffed at Dr Mahathir Mohamad for suggesting that he wanted to see the former prime minister spend life behind bars in the event of a Pakatan Rakyat election victory.
“I do not even want to see him in jail but he must not block full investigations into the host of financial and political scandals during his 22 years as Prime Minister – not only into infamous financial scandals under his watch but also how the key national institutions in the country like the Judiciary, the civil service, Attorney-General’s Chambers, the Police, the Anti-Corruption Agency , the Election Commission were compromised and subverted to serve the behests of one man, the Prime Minister,” Lim said in his response to Mahathir’s blog posting yesterday.
The former UMNO strongman was responding to Lim’s suggestion that Mahathir had been stepping up efforts to ensure the opposition would not come to power due to fears of his past scandals being reopened by the new government.
Referring to the fate of two former Arab dictators, Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, he said Lim was hoping that a similar end would befell Mahathir.
“He would love to see me dragged to the courts and sentenced to death or to at least a life sentence. Maybe like Gadaffi I would be murdered,” wrote Mahathir in his well-known sarcasm when commenting current affairs, while listing out why he did not deserve to be prosecuted for abuse of his office.
But Lim said seeing a jailed Mahathir was the last thing on his mind.
“I do not know whether Mahathir is becoming a victim of a very fevered imagination, to the extent that he could imagine and blog that I would want him to end up like Gadaffi or Mubarak.
“Nothing is furthest from my mind but I forgive Mahathir these wild and preposterous imaginings,” said the DAP veteran leader who as parliamentary opposition leader had often got into heated arguments with Mahathir during the latter’s premiership.
Lim reminded that by mentioning Mubarak’s recent life imprisonment meted out by the Egyptian court, he was not suggesting that Mahathir too should be jailed.
“I am not suggesting that Mahathir should face jail sentences for the financial scandals in his 22-year premiership but at minimum, Malaysians are entitled to know the truth about these financial scandals which would serve as painful national lessons to prevent their recurrence,” added the Ipoh Timur member of parliament.
