KUALA LUMPUR: DAP leaders, members and supporters must foil the multi-prong objectives of the current Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) offensive, centred on Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, to eliminate him as an effective campaigner for DAP and Pakatan Harapan in the forthcoming Sarawak state election, said DAP Parliamentary Leader Lim Kit Siang in a statement.

“They must prove Umno and BN wrong in all their nefarious political designs and conspiracies.”

Lim, who has been suspended from Parliament as Gelang Patah MP, alleged that there were other objectives in the “scurrilous and incendiary” attacks, many constructed from half-truths, lies and downright falsehoods.”

These include, according to Lim, deflecting attention from the national and international focus on Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s mega scandals, undermine the “Save Malaysia” campaign in the wake of the Citizens’ Declaration in Kuala Lumpur on March 4, and disrupt, disintegrate and destroy the DAP, which Umno and BN regard as the most united and cohesive political force in the Opposition.

For the first time in Sarawak’s 53-year history in Malaysia, what happens on its polling day was not just about the state, ventured Lim. “Adenan Satem’s majority in the state assembly will affect Najib’s tenure as Prime Minister.”

In fact, reiterated the DAP veteran, the Sarawak election was even more important to Najib than to Adenan in determining his fate given the international focus on his mega scandals. “They have refused to disappear from the public domain.”

Lim refers to the latest media reports on Najib’s mega scandals.

It has just been reported that Luxembourg’s state prosecutor has launched a judicial inquiry into allegations of money-laundering, covering payments totaling hundreds of millions of US dollars related to 1MDB.

The Reuters report quoted the Luxembourg prosecutor as saying that the inquiry followed evidence that funds held by the Malaysian government in offshore accounts in Singapore, Switzerland and Luxembourg may have been misused.

The investigation aims to trace the origin of four transfers in 2012 and one at the start of 2013 for a total of several hundred millions of dollars, connected with the issue of two bonds in May and October 2012, noted Lim. “There are also foreign news reports that the first arrest in connection with the world-wide investigations into 1MDB had been initiated.”

It’s impossible to impose a “cordon sanitaire” at the borders of Malaysia to stop the spread of information about mega scandals, warned Lim.