Kit Siang: Plans afoot to arrest, parade me in lock-up attire
“There are even some UMNO/BN strategists who want MACC to arrest me over the outrageous RM1 billion bribe allegation, put me in orange-coloured MACC lock-up uniform and parade me throughout the country as the best way to counter the kleptocratic allegations against Najib.”
(FMT) – DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang has claimed that a plot is being hatched for the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to arrest him over allegations that he was a beneficiary of a RM1 billion bribe from PPBM chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
The Gelang Patah MP alleged that the conspiracy was being planned to help offset opposition criticisms on reported loss of 1MDB-related funds under Prime Minister Najib Razak.
“There is a plot to get MACC to arrest and parade me in handcuffs in orange-coloured MACC lock-up uniform to counter kleptocratic allegations against Najib over the 1MDB scandal,” he said.
Claiming that Najib, who is also finance minister, could not clear himself of the allegations surrounding the sovereign wealth fund, he said Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) strategists were faced with a “great problem” on how they should be countered.
“The top UMNO/BN election strategists had brain-stormed long and hard as to what is the most effective way to counter the main issue against Najib in the ‘do-or-die’ 14th general election (GE14),” Lim said in a statement issued after his visit to fire victims at the Seremban Central Market this morning.
The DAP parliamentary leader also accused media controlled by BN of being full of reports and pictures of Parti Warisan Sabah vice-president Peter Anthony in handcuffs and in lock-up gear at the Kota Kinabalu courthouse after he was remanded for five days for a corruption probe yesterday.
“Now UMNO/BN strategists are trying to implicate Mahathir and me in one of the wildest allegations that Mahathir had given me a RM1 billion bribe, even claiming that RM750 million had already been paid into my bank accounts outside the country,” he said.
“There are even some UMNO/BN strategists who want MACC to arrest me over the outrageous RM1 billion bribe allegation, put me in orange-coloured MACC lock-up uniform and parade me throughout the country as the best way to counter the kleptocratic allegations against Najib,” he added.
Lim said he would meet his lawyers next week on a test case to sue the media that printed “lies and defamatory material” about him receiving the bribe from Mahathir.
He claimed that the BN strategists also had a second option to neutralise allegations against Najib through a campaign of character-assassination on DAP and Pakatan Harapan (PH) leaders, to tar them with corruption allegations.
He said it was to make the point that all political leaders, whether BN or PH, were corrupt “and that it is a matter of half kati and six tahils”, referring to the old weight measurement system where 1 kati was equivalent to 16 tahils.
He also said the move to charge his son, Lim Guan Eng, who is DAP secretary-general and Penang chief minister, with corruption was a “very clear case of political persecution”.
On June 30 last year, Lim was charged with using his public office or position to obtain gratification for himself and his wife, Betty Chew, by approving an application by Magnificent Emblem Sdn Bhd to convert agricultural land for residential purposes.
Lim was also alleged to have used his position to obtain gratification by purchasing a bungalow from businesswoman Phang Li Khoon for RM2.8 million, below the property’s market value of RM4.7 million on July 28, 2015.
