Malaysia is pioneering a mutation of fake news and hate speech by using unrelated old photos, videos, messages and lies to create a new false narrative in the social media – for instance, that DAP supported LTTE, that DAP was part of an evil but non-existing LTTE-DAP-Israel-American quartet, that the former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and former Malayan Communist Party (MCP) leader Chin Peng were my cousins and a whole host of other bare-faced lies.

Until the recent arrests last week, DAP had never been accused in the past 43 years of having supported the LTTE whether since its formation in 1976, or during the 26-year civil war in Sri Lanka from 1983-2009, or in the last 10 years since LTTE’s military defeat and the killing of the LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran in 2009.

Why is the DAP suddenly accused of supporting the revival of LTTE and the publication of the monstrous lie in the PAS publication, Harakah, of an evil but non-existing LTTE-DAP-Israel-American quartet?

PAS was with DAP for seven years in Pakatan Rakyat from 2008 to 2015. When did they discover that DAP had supported the LTTE and that there was an evil LTTE-DAP-Israel-America axis.

Did they perform their patriotic duty of reporting to the Special Branch and when was this done? Let the PAS leaders speak up!

This is why when the PAS Secretary-General proposed a White Paper on LTTE in Parliament, I readily agreed.

But I suggested that the White Paper should cover the entire spectrum of the problem of the terrorism faced by Malaysia, including the report that the four Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, dubbed the “anti-terror quarter”, had designated the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) as a terrorist organisation. The President of PAS was at the time a Vice President of IUMS.

DAP does not disseminate lies, fake news or hate speech, and we have never accused PAS of any involvement in terrorist activities, despite the designation of the four Gulf States of IUMS as a terrorist organisation.

The PAS President has denied in Parliament this week that IUMS was a terrorist organisation but a White Paper on Terrorism in Malaysia would be a proper place to deal with this designation by the four Gulf States, as there is no information that these four Gulf States have removed such a designation.

Among the old charts, lies, fake news and hate speech which were regurgitated recently and which had come to my notice were those which accused me as cousins of former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and Malayan Communist Party (MCP) leader Chin Peng as my cousins – which were downright lies as I have no kinship with either of them whatsoever.

In fact, the list of my alleged kinship was so wide that it included political leaders all over the country including Teresa Kok, Ngeh Koo Ham, Ng Kor Ming, Anthony Loke, Tony Pua and Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin.

But this is not the only lies I had faced in my 53 years in politics. Among the chief pedlars of lies against me was none other than the former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

I had been accused of being a communist; responsible for the May 13, 1969 riots, leading the street demonstrations in Kuala Lumpur shouting anti-Malay and anti-Islam slogans although I was never in Kuala Lumpur after the May 10, 1969 General Election; painted as quite a devil, a puaka, even jembalang; that I am anti-Malay, anti-Islam and at various times even anti-Indian, anti-Chinese educated Chinese , anti-English-educated Chinese; an agent of KGB, CIA, MI6 and even Australian Intelligence.

Before the 14th General Election, such toxic politics alleged that I would be the Prime Minister of Malaysia if Pakatan Harapan won the polls. When such lies and falsehoods were proved wrong after May 9, 2018 new lies and falsehoods were manufactured to allege that I am the real power in the Pakatan Harapan government in Putrajaya and that Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Anwar Ibrahim, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and Mohamad Sabu were merely my stooges and puppets.

And yet among the Chinese, I am accused of being a “running dog” who had sold out the rights and future of the Malaysian Chinese.

If all the lies told about me were true, I must be among the richest, the most powerful and most remarkable persons in human history.

Are the PAS MPs and leaders going to take over all these lies and falsehoods about DAP leaders and me?

Was the PAS President, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang telling a lie when he said in the Teluk Intan by-election in May 2014 that it was DAP who defended PAS in 1978 when the Kelantan government fell to Barisan Nasional, causing chaos within the state?

Hadi said Barisan Nasional , which was working with PAS then, did nothing to help them.

Hadi had said: “Only DAP defended us that time and we are grateful to them.

“Even with our differences over alcohol, pork, hudud and halal matters, we have something in common, which is to stand up against corruption, injustice and to fight for fairness for all.”

But now, PAS has become quite a supporter of kleptocracy!

This is what I said in Parliament on 8th November 1978 which debated the Bill to enable to Barisan Nasional Federal Government to take over the PAS Kelantan State Government – a debate which went on to the early hours of the morning:

“If parliamentary democracy and the Federal-state system is to survive, it is paramount that those in power realise and understand that whatever the political differences or however intense the party rivalries, democratic principles and the fundamental safeguards in the Constitution for a democratic society should not be sacrificed in the furtherance of partisan political interests.”

Will Hadi and the PAS leaders endorse this fundamental principle which I enunciated in Parliament 41 years ago?

If so, would they agree that some of the resolutions adopted by the Malay Dignity Congress violate the Constitution and the Rukunegara?

With the toxic nature of lies, fake news and hate speech in the Internet age, and their mutation into more toxic forms on the ubiquitous social media, Malaysians can now better understand why the Doomsday Clock 2019 is positioned at two minutes to midnight – closest it’s been to midnight since 1953 during the Cold War – because fake news has been recognised as a third factor after nuclear risk and climate change which posed an existential threat to humanity.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah on Saturday, 19th October 2019)