Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak, who was one of the two mocked as a stooge, responded that if standing up for one’s party and defending it against lies, slander and attacks makes one a stooge, then every politician in the world would be a stooge of his or her own party.
“Has DAP not sacked members who did not toe the party line?
“When people support their party, you call them stooges. When they do not toe the party line, you call them traitors and sack them.
“Kit Siang needs to make up his mind as to how he expects party leaders to show loyalty,” he told FMT today.
“Would not all those DAP leaders who disagree with working with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, but keep quiet and do not dare oppose the move, also be considered stooges?”
Salleh said that of late Lim “seems to delight in name-calling and uses all sorts of derogatory names against people who are not on the same page as him”.
A case in point, Salleh said, was that just two years ago, Lim had visited the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) office and sung their praises.
He said Lim had now upset MACC wth his “three monkeys” analogy and asked its chief commissioner, Dzulkifli Ahmad, and senior officers of the MACC to take a course in the English language.
“So, when he thought he could use the MACC to hurt Umno, the MACC is his friend. When they are no longer useful to DAP, they are ‘the three monkeys’.”
Lim had taken aim at Salleh, as well as Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Abdul Rahman Dahlan, over their seemingly “weak” attacks against him over the weekend.
The DAP parliamentary leader said the duo’s comments in their blogs seem to be an effort to try and win favour with their boss.
Rahman, in his response to Lim, said it was clear that Lim had become jaded in his thinking after so many years in politics.
“How then can one explain his willingness to cooperate with his arch nemesis, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and eat his own political vomit to justify his lust for power?
“His dignity is finished. His political currency has plummeted. Of course, everyone can see that except him.
“No one takes him seriously, more so the Chinese community which has been hoodwinked by his political grandstanding all these years,” he said.
Rahman then questioned what Lim had to show for all the years of his leadership in DAP, stating that he had failed to topple the Barisan Nasional federal government more than 10 times in general elections.
“In other countries, this kind of repeatedly failed politician would have been placed in cold storage, if not sacked or removed from his party position.
“But then again, as expected, DAP lacks the courage to do the obvious. Whichever way DAP decides, BN will have the upper hand.”