Ibrahim Ali must wrestle with his conscience, when he finds it, whether he had frantically phoned me in the seventies seeking my help when he was afraid of being detained under ISA as student activist

After the launching of Perkasa in March 2010, where Ibrahim Ali made his usual inflammatory speech, the press contacted me for my reactions and this was my response im my media statement dated 27th March 2010:

“As the press have contacted me for my reactions to the Perkasa launch and its inflammatory speeches, this is my preliminary response until I have full access to the speeches concerned.

“From the incendiary speech of the Perkasa President, Datuk Ibrahim Ali, it is clear that Perkasa is built on stilts of lies.

“It is a lie that DAP and the Malaysian Malaysia slogan were among the main factors that caused the May 13 riots.

“Has Ibrahim Ali taken 41 years after the 1969 tragedy to make this ‘discovery’.

“If DAP and Malaysian Malaysia were the causes of May 13 in 1969, DAP would have been banned long ago and DAP leaders would have languished in jail and unable to participate in Malaysian electoral politics in the past nine general elections.

“Or is Ibrahim suggesting that the Special Branch and the past five Prime Ministers had been remiss in their national duties in failing to take action against DAP, which he alleged as a threat to national security and perpetrator of May 13 riots?

“It is a lie that the DAP is against the Malays, Islam and wants to do away with the Malay Rulers.

“In the seventies, Ibrahim frantically sought my help as Parliamentary Opposition Leader when he was trying to escape detention under the Internal Security Act for his activities as a student leader.

“Why sought my help if DAP leaders were so anti-national and disloyal as he now wants to depict?”

I mentioned my statement of March 28, 2010, to illustrate that I have not suddenly invented the story of Ibrahim Ali “frantically” seeking my help in the 1970s to escape detention under the ISA.

Ibrahim has denied seeking help from me in the 1970s in order to evade arrest under the ISA, even calling me a “big liar”.

He said he never met me as Parliamentary Opposition Leader when he was a student activist.

I confirm that we never met in the seventies when I was Parliamentary Opposition Leader and he was a student leader.

He contacted me by phone one day when he frantically sought my help because the Special Branch were after him and he feared to be detained under the ISA.

Five years ago, Ibrahim did not deny or challenge the veracity of my statement that he had frantically sought my help as Parliamentary Opposition Leader in the seventies when he was trying to escape detention under the ISA for his activities as a student leader.

I leave it to Ibrahim to wrestle with his conscience, when he rediscovers it, as to whether to admit that he had frantically sought my help in the seventies when faced with ISA arrest.

I only advise Ibrahim to be ever humble, honest, truthful and to stop living on a world built on “stilts of lies” if he wants his words to be respected, his deeds to be admired and be regarded as an honourable man.

Lim Kit Siang DAP Parliamentary Leader & MP for Gelang Patah