Tun Mahathir has another 24 hours to withdraw and apologise for his chauvinistic blog on “Gelang Patah” making irresponsible and baseless attacks on my reputation and character or face legal action for defamation for his lies and falsehoods.

Yesterday, I had challenged Mahathir to stop spewing more lies and falsehoods but to produce evidence to substantiate his baseless attacks on my reputation and character or he should retract and apologise for his lies and falsehoods against me in his blog on Thursday.

There has only been silence on Mahathir’s part and I am giving him another 24 hours to vindicate himself, produce proof to substantiate his allegations against me or behave as a responsible “elder statesman” and retract and apologise for his defamatory blog against me.

In his blog, Mahathir made the most chauvinistic, scurrilous and totally baseless attacks on me, accusing me of wanting to contesting Gelang Patah because

1. I want the Chinese in Gelang Patah and Johor to “reject working together and sharing with the Malays”;

2. urge the Chinese in Johor “to dislike and hate the Malays” to create “conflict and antagonism between the races”;

3. create “an unhealthy racial confrontation” between the Malays and Chinese in Johor, which will be “disruptive and will not be conducive to the development of Malaysia”.

All these three allegations by Mahathir are downright lies and falsehoods, which I had never uttered in Gelang Patah and Johore since the announcement on March 18 that I would be contesting in Gelang Patah.

In fact, in my 47 years in politics, I had never been guilty of anyone of these three charges by Mahathir as it goes against the very grain of my political beliefs – that Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or geography must unite as one people to create a country which will be an international example and inspiration of the success story of the coming together of a plural society of diverse races, religions, languages and cultures to build an united, prosperous, competitive, just and free nation.

I have repeatedly said in Gelang Patah that I hope to win not just on Chinese votes alone, but on the votes of all the racial groups in the country i.e. the Chinese, Malay and Indian voter support, urging the Chinese, the Malays and the Indians in Gelang Patah to show to Barisan Nasional that they can unite under the banner of Pakatan Rakyat comprising the three parties of DAP, PAS and PKR to work for the common welfare of Malaysians and common good of the country – which is totally against the lies and falsehoods which Mahathir is so irresponsibly spewing in his blog against me.

There are attempts to make the 13GE the dirtiest general election in Malaysia history of 13 general elections in 56 years, with the deployment of the entire menu of novel and unprecedented dirty tricks and stratagems, targeting leaders of all three parties in the Pakatan Rakyat – DAP, PKR and PAS – to defame them and inflame public feelings and tension.

One such “dirty trick” is fabrication and dissemination of fake videos making malicious and vicious attacks on PR leaders, including synthetic sex videos. Another “dirty trick” is the character assassination of PR leaders accusing them of all sorts of political sins and crimes which are concocted in toto, without an iota of truth whatsoever.

One such dastardly and despicable deed was already at work in Gelang Patah, where inflammatory leaftlets, without revealing the identity of the printer or authofr, are surreptitiously distributed among Malay voters accusing me of being the “provocateur” of the of the May 13 riots in 1969.

This anonymous leaflet accused me of inciting racial hatred and tension in Kuala Lumpur on May 11, 12 and 13 of 1969, leading processions in the streets of KL making seditious anti-Malay and anti-Islam slogans which provoked the May 13 riots.

In actual fact, I had answered these irresponsible allegations, lies and falsehoods both in Parliament and outside, that I was never in Kuala Lumpur on May 11,12 and 13 of 1969 and I could not be guilty of all the terrible things they have alleged about me just before May 13, including the earlier allegation in the multi-million ringgit film “Tanda Putera” that I had urinated on the flagpole in front of the official residence of the then Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Harun Idris precipitating the May 13 riots.

These are all lies and falsehoods, which could easily be borne out by the police who would have full records in their archives on my movements on May 11, 12 and 13 of 1969.

If I have just done one-tenth of the terrible things the Umno propagandists and cybertroopers are accusing me of on May 11, 12 and 13 of 1969, causing the May 13 riots, this would have become an issue in the past 44 years and not suddenly discovered in the past four years to be used to attack my credibility and integrity.

What I find shocking is not only the perpetration of the dirtiest tricks in the run-up to the 13GE by the immoral and unethical mercenaries and scums in the political propaganda departments of UMNO and BN, but prominent UMNO/BN political leaders are themselves getting involved in such “dirty tricks”, disseminating lies and falsehoods without ethical or moral qualms.

This is what Mahathir had done with his blog on “Gelang Patah” making the most chauvinist and scurrilous attacks on me, accusing me of wanting to cause a racial confronation coming to Gelang Patah.

Let me ask Mahathir why he has become so desperate as to scrape the bottom of the barrel to come out with downright lies and falsehoods against me; why instead of restraining and stopping the political mercenaries and scums from resorting to the dirtiest tricks and stratagems to keep the 13GE as clean, free and fair as possible, he is polluting the campaign with his own lies and falsehoods.I expect an answer from Mahathir.