By Shannon Teoh | October 18, 2011 The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 18 — Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) top leadership came out in full force today to defend Lim Guan Eng, calling allegations by Umno against the DAP secretary-general’s son “the lowest gutter politics” seen in decades.
Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim told a press conference after a PR presidential council meeting that the accusations showed that Umno leaders “know no limits when it comes to clinging on to power.”
“Attacking not just leaders but their families … it is disgusting,” the PKR de facto leader said.
DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang called the allegations, which centre around the alleged conduct of Guan Eng’s son in school and allegations about the subsequent use of his father’s name to escape punishment, “gutter politics of the lowest I have seen in over 40 years of politics.” “I call on the prime minister and deputy prime minister to state their stand on how they would feel if their children or grandchildren were the subject of such baseless slander. Is this their political transformation?” said Kit Siang, who is the grandfather of the 16-year-old.
Guan Eng said today he was furious with the “barbaric lies” made about his teenage 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 social media sites.
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 Umno Youth chief Khairy on his Twitter account.
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.
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.]
PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang also said that such attacks on sensitive issues showed that Barisan Nasional (BN) had entered election mode.
“They should keep this disease of slander within their own parties,” the Marang MP said.