UMNO and PAS have stepped up their campaign of fake news and hate speech to dismember the DAP so as to destroy the Pakatan Harapan government

UMNO and PAS have stepped up their campaign of fake news and hate speech to dismember the DAP so as to destroy the Pakatan Harapan government.

I warned a few days ago that with the approach of Nov. 11, when the Kuala Lumpur High Court will decide whether the former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak walks free or will be ordered to enter his defence on seven charges of abuse of power, corruption and money-laundering involving RM42 million of funds from SRC International, there will be an escalation of lies, fake news and hate speech.

This is what has happened.

A PAS leader has joined an UMNO leader to call for the banning of the DAP, replete with lies, fake news and hate speech.

DAP is accused of wanting to create a Christian Malaysia, a subject which had never been brought up in the DAP at any level in the past 53 years, completely ignoring the numerous public declarations which had been made by the DAP endorsing and upholding the fundamental features of the Constitution including the position of Islam as the official religion of the country.

DAP is also accused of supporting the LTTE and Tamil Tigers, when the Sri Lanka civil war had ended 10 years ago in 2009, and LTTE had been a defunct organisation in the past decade. There was never at any time in the past when the DAP had been accused of supporting LTTE.

DAP is further accused of promoting communism and the communist struggle which goes against the core principles and commitment of the DAP in the past 53 years to conduct a peaceful democratic struggle through the electoral process.

We are seeing in Malaysia a mutation of the spread of fake news and hate speech using unrelated old photos, videos, messages and lies to create a new false narrative in the social media – even alleging that I am related to former Malayan Communist Party (MCP) leader Chin Peng which were barefaced lies.

Malaysians must not fall victim to the lies, fake news and hate speech which are emerging to be a great threat to the unity, harmony and even survival of Malaysia as a plural society.

Lim Kit Siang MP for Iskandar Puteri