I fully agree with the Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad that those who believe that I was the mastermind in the formation of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia should go to Tanjong Rambutan.

The question is whether it is Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the former Prime Minister or Hamidah Othman, former Bersatu leader who should go or both should go to Tanjong Rambutan!

Hamidah Othman, former Bersatu vice president, said she was the person who told Najib that I had pitched the idea of setting up Bersatu to Mahathir at Perdana Leadership Foundation on March 4, 2016, “after it became apparent that the People’s Declaration movement to depose Najib” had failed to gain traction

Hamidah is a very poor liar and has no respect for the sanctity of dates and events.

March 4, 2016 was the first time that I appeared in a public gathering with Mahathir to sign and launch the People’s Declaration to Save Malaysia from global kleptocracy and nobody in the right senses would talk about the People’s Declaration not having any traction on the very first day of its signing and launch.

Furthermore, I am not aware of any meeting at Perdana Leadership Foundation on March 4, 2016, which is a complete concoction of Hamidah. The People’s Declaration was launched at the University of Malaya Alumni Club House on March 4, 2016 and I am not aware of any mythical meeting of that date at the Perdana Leadership Foundation which I allegedly attended.

The signatories of the People’s Declaration, apart from Mahathir and me, included Muhyiddin Yassin, Mukhriz Mahathir, Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, Ling Liong Sik, Azmin Ali, Nurul Izzah Anwar, Rafizi Ramli, Mohamad Sabu, Salahuddin Ayub, Ambiga Seenivasagam and Maria Chin Abdullah.

At the launch of the People’s Declaration, the thrust was to get Najib to resign as Prime Minister and nobody thought about forming a new political party. In fact, Muhyiddin was still UMNO Deputy President until he was sacked from UMNO three months later in June 2016.

Besides demanding that Najib be removed as Prime Minister, the Declaration also touched on freedom of speech and a free media. The main points of the Declaration were:

· The removal of Najib Razak as the prime minister of Malaysia through non-violent and legally permissible means;
· The removal of all those who have acted in concert with him;
· A repeal of all recent laws and agreements that violate the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Federal Constitution, and;
· A restoration of the integrity of the institutions that have been undermined, such as the police, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), Bank Negara and the Public Accounts Committee.

The Declaration included several key reasons for its demands:

· Concern over the deteriorating political, economic and social situation in the country;
· Damage done to the country under the premiership of Najib Razak;
· Malaysia becoming one of the 10 most corrupt countries in the world, according to Ernst and Young in their Asia Pacific Fraud Survey Report Series 2013. The 2015 Corruption Perception Index showed Malaysia had dropped four places from 50 to 54; and,
· Allocations to all ministries and public institutions, including universities, have been reduced because of shortage of funds. Even when allocations were budgeted for, no money was available.

Hamidah’s tall tale about my being the mastermind in the formation of Bersatu was clearly a wedding gift for Najib for him and Rosmah Mansor attending last weekend’s wedding of Hamidah’s daughter in Ipoh.

But Najib has proved to be the biggest sucker to believe Hamidah.

Despite all the tens or even hundreds of millions of ringgit which Najib had spent on gathering intelligence when he was Prime Minister, how could he believe that the proposal for Bersatu was mooted as early as March 2016, when it was several months after the launch of the People’s Declaration in March 2016 that Bersatu was formed.

Two events were responsible for the formation of Bersatu:

(i) The landslide victory of UMNO in two by-elections in Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar on 18th June 2016 which infected Najib with the virus of hubris that eventually led to his downfall in the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018. If Najib had dissolved Parliament immediately after the Barisan Nasional victory on May 7, 2016 and the two by-elections in Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar on June 18, 2016, UMNO/BN would have been returned to power and God forbid, Najib would still be the Prime Minister. Najib’s hubris saved Malaysia – for Najib believed he could win big, even regain two-thirds parliamentary majority, with new redelineation of electoral constituencies. So he waited until May 2018.

(ii) The sacking from UMNO of Tan Sri Muhyddin Yassin, the UMNO Deputy President, and Mukhriz Mahathir, former Kedah Mentri Besar on 24th June 2016.

If anything, these two events fathered the formation of Bersatu. Can Najib claim paternity for Bersatu!

It is most reprehensible and deplorable that Najib’s is peddling the Hamidah canard in his campaign to generate distrust and hatred among the races, not realising that he had in the process committed a great slander on the Malay race, believing that the Malays are incapable of thinking and are such simpletons as to fall for his lies and falsehoods.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Parliament on Tuesday, 16th Juy 2019)