By Clara Chooi | October 18, 2011
The Malaysian Insider (Updated)

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 18 — Lim Guan Eng said today he was furious with the “barbaric lies” made about his young son by “pro-Umno ferocious beasts” and singled out Khairy Jamaluddin and other party leaders for perpetrating the allegations with snide comments on blogs and on social media.

“My family and I deplore these lies and fabrications against my young son as morally despicable and barbaric. Umno should act against those trying to wreck the life of my young son with cruel and barbaric lies just to finish me off politically,” Lim (picture) said in a strongly-worded statement today.

The Penang chief minister pointed to the allegations highlighted in Bukit Gelugor Umno division chairman Dr Novandri Hasan Basri’s blog and a subsequent comment posted by Khairy on his Twitter account.

The allegations centre on Lim’s 16-year-old son conduct in school and accuses the youth of using his father’s name to escape punishment.

Dr Novandri and other bloggers also accused Lim of paying RM200,000 to keep the scandal out of the media and said the chief minister had then transferred his son to another school after the incident.

“Sadly, even Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaludin joined in these shameful lies by poking fun at my son with this tweet,” Lim said today, citing Khairy’s remarks on the microblogging site yesterday.

Using the Twitter handle @Khairykj, Khairy had written, “Mungkin dia roboh Kampung Buah Pala sebab nak ganti dengan Kampung Buah Dada” in response to another tweet by pro-Umno blogger “@PapaGomo”. [English translation: Maybe he destroyed Kampung Buah Pala because he wanted to replace it with Kampung Buah Dada.]

“I hope those poking fun and spreading lies at my young son can look at themselves in the mirror as a father and ask whether they want their own child to suffer the trauma of such lies,” said Lim.

Denying the allegations, he explained that his son had requested a transfer to St Xavier’s Institution in Penang from SMK (C) Heng Yee as he did not want to have a “crew-cut” hairstyle as required in the latter school.

Lim said he had promised to allow the transfer if his son scored at least 6As in his PMR.

But following the allegations, Lim said his son was “very shaken up” and has been unable to face school for the past few days.

“In this modern world, it is difficult for a young kid growing up, especially so when his father is a chief minister targeted daily by the pro-BN media. For a young kid growing up, to be maligned in such a beastly and cruel fashion publicly is unacceptable and inhumane.

“I urge these ferocious pro-Umnno beasts not to prey on the innocence of my young children. If you want to finish me off, do your worst to me but leave my innocent children alone,” he said.

Lim urged the Umno leadership to take action against party members guilty of perpetuating the rumouts, adding a warning that he too reserves the right to take further action.

“In the meantime, my wife and I will try to heal my young son and pray that he will recover from having his innocence so cruelly destroyed by these pro-Umno beasts,” he said.