Act of sabotage


car tyre puncture at Parliament Precint

Kit Siang’s car tyres punctured outside Parliament (Update)
By LEE YUK PENG | The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: A tyre of the car belonging to veteran Member of Parliament Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timur) parked at the MPs’ parking lot at Parliament building was delibrately punctured with a needle on Wednesday.

Lim, who raised the matter it at the Dewan Rakyat during the Question Time Thursday asked: “How can this act of sabotage happen at Parliament building?”

He said he planned to drive out for lunch at 1:15pm when he discovered that the rear left tyre had deflated.

An aide said he went to a nearby petrol station to inflate the tyre and returned to Parliament building after lunch.

However, he discovered the same tyre had deflated again at 4pm.

The car was then sent to a tyre shop where the needle hole was found near the rim of the tyre and not at the surface.

Lim said he was not going to lodge a police report but Parliament chief administrator Datuk Kamaruddin Baria has spoken to him about it.

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NST | DEWAN DISPATCHES: Lim Kit Siang’s flat tyre: sabotage, vandalism, prank, threat, warning or shoddiness?
By : Azmi Anshar

So irate was his reaction to discovering the needle in the tyre on Wednesday that he raised the matter during Question Time, much to the amusement of the House but Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia is always a hard sell for sob stories.

“My car was sabotaged. I found a needle. In my 40 years of experience, I have never experienced such things,” Kit bellowed in disgust. “How secure is the security in the Parliament?”

Pandikar Amin immediately exuded unsympathetic vibes, shrugging off Kit’s complaint by instructing him to refer the question to the relevant Ministry rather than waste floor time lamenting about his flat tyre. However, Information, Communication and Culture Minister Rais Yatim was genuinely concerned and demonstrated empathy. Although agreeing that Kit’s predicament had nothing to do with the question before the house, Rais volunteered to help Kit by having a word with Parliament security.

“He and I have a long history together. I do not mind going to the security in parliament. That should be sufficient for him,” Rais preambled before delivering his reply.

Dissatisfied, Lim proceeded straight to the Parliament lobby and called for an impromptu Press conference. As usual, a ready audience in the battery of media reporters were waiting eagerly for Kit’s revelation. He had gone for lunch with his DAP colleagues in his Honda CRV and during the drive, they all felt that the car was not cruising as stable as it should be. When they arrived at the restaurant, they found the left rear tyre punctured and quickly brought it to a nearby mechanic to have the problem fixed.

Kit didn’t think much of the flat tyre when he returned to Parliament House after lunch but when he was about to leave at 4pm that day, he was stunned to see the same tyre deflated again. After replacing the flat with a spare, Kit took damaged tyre to the mechanic where this time, a needle mark was discovered. “This is no accident. It was a clear case of sabotage,” he cried. However, Kit elected not to lodge a police report despite the ruthless outcome but had raised it with parliament administrative director Datuk Kamaruddin Baria, who sought out Kit to establish the incident.

Before any elucidation is made to Kit’s catastrophe (a big word considering the action but it is in keeping with Kit’s fondness for hyperboles), let it be stated here that no vehicle owner should ever be burdened with a needle puncture in a tyre, deliberate or otherwise. The hassle it takes to repair the tyre is reason enough for a bout of hyperventilation. That stated, was it sabotage to begin with in its proper definition? Kit might not want to rue other motives as to why someone would persevere to bang a nail into his Honda’s tyre but if he opts to, these are four other possibilities:

:: Vandalism: Vandals have been known to burn cars in certain housing areas out of spite or some measure of warning. House owners, irritated with inconsiderate motorists who haphazardly park their vehicles in front of their gates, have been known to let out air of the tyres. Low-rent tow truck operators have been known to shower highways with nails in the hope of “nailing” an unsuspecting car with a big towing payday.

:: Prank: Some probable suspects who nail the tyre are the scores of MPs who might have an unsettled grudge with Kit over the years but lacks the courage or the intellectual brute to take him on inside the House for a face-off. Khairy Jamaluddin (BN-Rembau) has no such hang-ups when tangoing with Kit head-on in the past year, so he won’t waste time with such delinquent tendencies. But KJ did see the gallows humour to the incident in his day’s Twitter tweet: “Kit Siang claims his CRV tires deliberately punctured in Parliament yest. Nasharuddin PAS missing from Dewan. I think he slashed the tires…” Oh, that’s low.

:: Threat: Politicians are prone to receiving all kinds of threats, from disgruntled rivals who vow to “fix you” in the polls or in a policy decision setting, or discontented supporters who threaten to withdraw their backing if they are not paid in cash or contracts. If Kit had crossed any of such persons, a nail in the tyre is retribution or retaliation of sorts.

:: Warning: Vicious mobsters or even resentful rival politicians are known to deliver bullets in the mail as a deadly warning for Kit to back out of a certain unpopular stance. Kit has taken up many, many politically incorrect stand over the decades, when he riled against corruption, mismanagement, abuse, chicanery and negligence against as many characters as he can spew off his fingertips. Would a nail in a tyre serve as “bullet in the mail?” Karpal Singh is the best man to help Kit answer this disturbing probability.

With these four motives as strong backdrops for the tyre puncture, Kit insisted on defining the flat tyre incident as sabotage. Perhaps he has a point. Sabotage, according to the definition by the Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, is “any underhand interference with production, work, etc., in a plant, factory, etc., as by enemy agents during wartime or by employees during a trade dispute. Or any undermining of a cause.”

Kit wasn’t part with of any production work in a plant or factory but the Dewan Rakyat could be considered as a factory of sorts and House business could be loosely interpreted as production or work. Enemy agents? There’s a long list of people out to get him, starting from the ones within his organisation to the ones trying to shut him up. In keeping up with Kit’s hyperbolic mind, politics is war and its machinations could be deemed as a “trade dispute”

Certainly Kit has a cause, many causes in fact that many detractors would love to undermine. So sabotage could be the original motive.

Or there could be a more plausible one: the mechanic who examined and repaired the flat tyre the first time may have simply done a shoddy job (it happens to mortals like all of us all the time) and the air inside the tyre lasted just about enough for Kit to drive back to Parliament House but not enough to prevent him from stoking up a fuss inside the House and launch into the histrionics that lives up to his reputation.

  1. #1 by monsterball on Thursday, 18 June 2009 - 8:26 pm

    Yes….Kit Siang…. expose those low class buggers.
    Happened to you…small matter.
    With them… nothing happen….create one and make noise.
    If that tyre punctured belongs to that good for nothing.. useless .no backbone..Rias Yatim…punctured near DAP Hq…he will shout and jump too. They can do that. LKS cannot.
    I think that will cost them at least two votes gone…..hahhhahahahaha

  2. #2 by TomThumb on Thursday, 18 June 2009 - 9:18 pm

    this is nothing!

    imagine the frustration of the saucy waitress who went to the back of the garage with her customer to unzip the covers but only to find two flat tyres staring at her.

  3. #3 by ocassey on Thursday, 18 June 2009 - 9:33 pm

    Mr. Lim, someone in the ruling zoo is trying to hint and tell you something which all of us know a long time ago (in politics one week can be a long time… some one said before) and that is about “DEFLATION!”. Funny, Jibby is still seen floating in the air with the reports in the medias today. He probably has a lot of GAS !!!

  4. #4 by ocassey on Thursday, 18 June 2009 - 9:34 pm

    PETRONAS GAS ?

  5. #5 by limkamput on Thursday, 18 June 2009 - 9:42 pm

    Some dumb here is thinking of nothing but zip and flat tyres. May be this dumb is really depraved or deprived or both.

  6. #6 by Bossa Roo on Thursday, 18 June 2009 - 9:55 pm

    Kit Siang,

    You can expect more of such despicable acts of vandalism. I think they are the very same people who sent bullets in the mail to Karpal and also threatened to assault him earlier in Parliament. It was ridiculous on the part of the Speaker just to brush aside this incident, but at least among the Ministers, there are some understandable people like Rais Yatim.

  7. #7 by sheriff singh on Thursday, 18 June 2009 - 10:46 pm

    PKFZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz?

  8. #8 by ktteokt on Thursday, 18 June 2009 - 11:12 pm

    With such tight security in the Parliament area, who can have access to the car park there except AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL! So this must be the deed of authorized personnel who have been authorized by someone above to do such a stupid thing!

  9. #9 by TomThumb on Thursday, 18 June 2009 - 11:26 pm

    [deleted]

  10. #10 by lee wee tak_ on Thursday, 18 June 2009 - 11:28 pm

    yeah, this time is the wheels but could it easily done on brakes

    BN supporters, or worse, BN itself is feeling the heat and can no longer compete on debate, logic and sound arguments hence resorting to uncivilized, unfair, cowardly, immature and unconstructive way of getting one back at Uncle Kit

    Najib, so this is your performance now

    I rule out any acts of vandalism from PR or politically-unaffiliated man in the street. this sort of thing can only come from Unlce Kit’s political opponent

    BN, under Najib, has degenerated to previously unimaginable low gutter level, just when I thought UMNO and BN have sunked to the bottom under Mahathrism and Badawism. Najibism takes some beating

  11. #11 by limkamput on Thursday, 18 June 2009 - 11:59 pm

    [deleted]

  12. #12 by ekans on Friday, 19 June 2009 - 12:48 am

    Security at the Parliament?
    Remember how Karpal was accosted & harrassed by UMNO Youth members at the Parliament?
    It appears that security at the Parliament is virtually non-existent for Pakatan Rakyat MPs.
    I’ve heard of hidden camera systems, installed in motor vehicles which can be used to record pictures or videos of vandals, accidents, etc.
    Maybe YB LKS & other fellow Pakatan Rakyat MPs, ADUNs, etc, should consider installing such a system in their vehicles to catch such culprits in the act…

  13. #13 by TomThumb on Friday, 19 June 2009 - 1:20 am

    yep. if they can harass the lion of jelutong what are two worn out second hand tyres belonging the parliamentary leader of the opposition??

  14. #14 by boh-liao on Friday, 19 June 2009 - 1:39 am

    WATCH OUT
    You have been warned by the DARK force
    Anything goes
    Anything that can go wrong will go wrong
    Be very careful

  15. #15 by UzMiNoOnist on Friday, 19 June 2009 - 2:10 am

    Did someone posted earlier in this blog wanted to see the death of opposition MPs?

  16. #16 by limkamput on Friday, 19 June 2009 - 7:11 am

    [deleted]

  17. #17 by taiking on Friday, 19 June 2009 - 8:54 am

    School boys act. Its not quite ok even then and even if you were a mere 12 yr old. But if he was a fully grown man and he walks the corridor of parliament than he should be shot on the spot and then fed to the dogs.

    That aside. Parliament security. Where is it? Where are the security guards. Dont tell us that security is tight. That only makes things worse because tight security inevitably means that it is inside job – inside job as in it was done by or on the direction of someone inside the house of parliament. Which also means it should not be too difficult to find the culprit.

  18. #18 by ktteokt on Friday, 19 June 2009 - 10:23 am

    Parliament does not employ private security guards. Security is done by none other than PDRM personnel and if this sort of thing can happen within the compounds of Parliament, then the IGP ought to be SHOT!

  19. #19 by wanderer on Friday, 19 June 2009 - 10:49 am

    TomThumb Says:

    Yesterday at 21: 18.51
    this is nothing!

    You have a hallow brain, only stuffed with filth!
    A low being like you, only classified as a blooming pig a#se…

  20. #20 by Tonberry on Friday, 19 June 2009 - 11:36 am

    Apart from those pemuda umno celaka, i cant really think of anyone else who could walk in and out within the Parliament compound so easily. Ordinary citizens dont have much business inside the parliament.

  21. #21 by rabbit on Friday, 19 June 2009 - 11:40 am

    LKS, pls be more careful, this is might the 1st warning from them. seen the can bring weapon into the building, they bring fire powder too. chk the car b4 drive out. in the parking no cctv install? why only LSK car? not BN car? hey… dont ack like mama kids, schame on all human..

  22. #22 by tsn on Friday, 19 June 2009 - 1:16 pm

    Be careful, one day there might be thumbtacks sitting wonderfully on your parliament chair. Just double check before you put your sturdy bum on it.

  23. #23 by monsterball on Saturday, 20 June 2009 - 11:37 am

    Umno buggers think that’s a joke.. small matter…….not important.
    Anything they do to the oppositions….small matter.
    Those idiots does not realized it happened in the compound of Parliament house…supposedly to be serious and great security facilities.
    It seems those guards outside are all sleeping or taking instruction from “someone” to make LKS angry.
    Yes…that’s a sabotage…as it is designed to make life LKS loose valuable time..and may not have a clear mind to attend Parliament.
    Yes…it’s a sabotage…to disrupt LKS working time table.
    It’s sabotage….destroying his property for work.
    How more clearer does UMNO buggers need to sink in to their coconut heads….this is serious matter and not a prank.
    You do not fool around in Parliament.
    Love to see that to UMNO cars…and wait for the reactions and remarks.
    Why will UMNO ever lean to be serious management people?
    If they do..all should support LKS to catch the culprits.
    No ..they encourage unlawful acts.

  24. #24 by kontiki on Saturday, 20 June 2009 - 7:54 pm

    The monkey should put his mischief into practice by going to parliament to vandalize the UMNO cars since he raves and rants, scratches his butt and jumps up and down in agitation over what happened to LKS’ car. It would be better for his talents to be displayed in the grounds of parliament, than in cyberspace where his numerous unsolicited comments have become absolutely boooriiiiiing!!!!! Since the monkey badly craves for attention, there is no better attention he can get by having the police chase him all over the grounds of parliament. Maybe if he likes it, he can also hop into the debating hall and expose his butt to the Speaker. The monkey will be pleased that he will get instant attention worldwide when his exploits are splashed by YouTube! What are you waiting for monkey?

  25. #25 by anna brella on Sunday, 21 June 2009 - 7:07 am

    Speaking of priorities, must say that Mr Lim Kit Siang has got very good taste in his choice of car!

    It’s so much more refreshing than those average Camrys or the usual run off the mill Mercs or Beamers or worse, those boring, tasteless boxes with four wheels attached to them called Protons.

    Can’t make out form the pic here whether Mr Lim’s CRV is a classy navy blue or a cool black, so putting first things first, can someone please confirm the car’s shade as a matter of priority please.

    “Imagine Power To The People” John Lennon.

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