UMNO/BN leaders, propagandists and cybertroopers should stop insulting the intelligence of Malaysians thinking Malays can be deceived into believing that Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has become my puppet while the Chinese will believe that I have become Mahathir’s stooge.

Any primary school student will know that it is not possible Mahathir has become my stooge and I have become Mahathir’s puppet, one at the same time.

Furtheremore, both allegations are lies and falsehoods of the most heinous variety.

Mahathir is not my puppet and I am not Mahathir’s stooge.

In my political life, I had undergone detention under the Internal Security Act twice, was hauled to court under the Official Secrets Act and other repressive laws for defending the best interests of Malaysians and future generations; my son Lim Guan Eng was detained under the ISA, imprisoned and disqualified as a Member of Parliament for defending the honour and dignity of an underaged Malay girl – and I stood my ground all these decades without compromising my political principles and beliefs even in the 22 years when Mahathir was the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Why should I be Mahathir’s puppet or stooge now?

Similarly, at the advanced age of 92 and after 22 years as Prime Minister of Malaysia, why should Mahathir be my stooge and puppet?

Such notions are unthinkable even to people with the minimum of grey matter.

Despite our great differences in the past, Mahathir and I have come together with the common objective, to save Malaysia from hurtling towards the trajectory of a failed and a rogue state.

Within a few years under Najib’s premiership, Malaysia has already become a global kleptocracy – something which the first five Prime Ministers of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein, Tun Mahathir and Tun Abdullah would have thought totally impossible in the first five decades of the nation.

We have been overtaken by South Korea and Taiwan and in danger of losing out to Vietnam, Thailand and even Indonesia if Malaysians do not unite and save Malaysia, reset nation building directions and policies to achieve our Merdeka Dream to an example to the world of an united, harmonious, successful, progressive and prosperous multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural nation.

Or do we want to become a backward, repressive and basket-case African nation?

UMNO/BN leaders, propagandists and cybertroopers are living in a world of their own, completely unaware that this is the age of information, where information travels at the speed of light and what happens in any part of the world is instantly known by people everywhere.

Futhermore, the democratisation of education has enabled every Malaysian to have the opportunity to go to school and able to think for themselves.

It is precisely because MCA and Gerakan leaders are telling such atrocious lies about DAP leaders that there is no way MCA and Gerakan can improve on their general election peformance in the 14th general election.

If UMNO leaders, propagandists and cybertroopers persist in disseminating such lies about Mahathir and me, their credibility will plunge to the bottom – paving the way for the defeat of UMNO/BN coalition in the next general election and the establishment of a Pakatan Harapan government in Putrajaya as well as a new Pakatan Harapan Johore State Government.

(Speech at a DAP dialogue at Parit Tengah, Muar on Saturday, 9th September 2017 at 5 pm)