Kit Siang says will sue publishers of RM1b bribe claim

(MMO) – DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang said today he will sue those who published claims that he received a RM1 billion bribe from former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

In a statement, Lim said he would instruct his lawyers to take up a “test case” to sue the “media which printed lies and defamatory materials” about him.

Last week, exiled blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin alleged in his Malaysia Today website that Lim received the bribe from Dr Mahathir in order for Dr Mahathir’s Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) to be allowed to join Pakatan Harapan, for Dr Mahathir to be made chairman for the coalition, and also for Lim’s silence on the 1990s Bank Negara foreign exchange (forex) scandal.

“We are seeing a new modus operandi in character-assassination and spreading of lies and falsehoods against DAP and Pakatan Harapan leaders,” Lim said.

“Are these media protected from defamatory proceedings for recycling such lies and falsehoods? This is the test case which I have instructed my lawyers to initiate and institute,” he added.

Lim also said that if the bribe was indeed true, Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) Chief Commissioner Tan Sri Dzulkifli Ahmad should resign as MACC was unable to detect such a huge transaction.

“I would go one step further and state that if there is any truth in the  lies about Mahathir’s RM1 billion bribe to me, with RM750,000 already paid into my accounts,  and MACC knows nothing about it, then MACC Chief Commissioner Tan Sri Dzulkifli Ahmad should resign in disgrace because of utter incompetence,” he said.

“How could the MACC know nothing of such a huge billion-ringgit bribe to me, with RM750,000 already paid to me overseas?” he added.

Dr Mahathir previously said that those behind the allegations were “insane”, but Lim said that those who published the allegations had a clear objective in their mind to spread “lies”.