I fully endorse the statement by the DAP Secretary-General Anthony Loke that DAP had never told PAS to abandon Islam during the years when the two parties worked together, whether during Barisan Alternatif from 1999 to 2001 and in Pakatan Rakyat from 2008 to 2015.

Thankfully, the Amanah President, Mohamad Sabu, had clarified the matter.

I was perplexed by the statement by the PAS President, Hadi Awang in Simpang Jeram.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the reason for Hadi’s animus for the DAP, to the extent that he was prepared to tell lies, falsehoods, fake news, and hate speech against the DAP, was because the DAP never proposed that he became the Prime Minister instead of Anwar Ibrahim.

During the Kajang Move in 2014 where Anwar and Wan Azizah Wan Ismail were thwarted in their plan to become the Menteri Besar of Selangor, Hadi had seen me to solicit DAP support for PAS’ opposition to Anwar as the Prime Minister-designate in the General Election.

Hadi suggested Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah should replace Anwar as Pakatan Rakyat’s Prime Minister-designate.

I disagreed and reminded Hadi of the Pakatan Rakyat’s decision to name Anwar as the Prime Minister-designate.

Had I at that time agreed to Hadi’s proposal to replace Anwar with Razaleigh, or better still, suggested that Hadi should be the PM-designate instead, I would today be hailed by Hadi as a great champion of and fighter for Islam instead of being anti-Malay, anti-Islam, anti-Royalty, communist, and promoting Islamophobia!

Yes, I was opposed to Hadi as the Prime Minister of Malaysia and events have proved me right.

Hadi is now the greatest threat to inter-ethnic, inter-religious, inter-cultural, and inter-civilisation dialogue, understanding, tolerance and harmony in the history of Malaysia, for he has not only defamed the non-Malays and non-Muslims, he has also defamed the Malays and Muslims.

Malaysians, whether Malays or non-Malays, Muslims or non-Muslims want political stability but Hadi wants political turmoil and upheaval.

Malaysians, whether Malays or non-Malays, Muslims or Non-Muslims, want national unity of the various races, religions and cultures in Malaysia but Hadi wants polarisation and disagreement.

Fortunately, polarisation in Malaysia has not reached the extreme level as in other countries.

According the Edelman Trust Barometer Global Report 2023, Malaysia is not in the worst category of six countries which are “severely polarised”, or is it among the second category of nine countries which are “in danger of severe polarisation” or third category of six countries which are “extremely divided”.

Malaysia belongs to the fourth and best category of seven countries which are “less polarised” with few deep divisions, together with Singapore, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, China, and India.

We must not allow irresponsible leaders like Hadi to plunge Malaysia into the other three categories where polarisation becomes severe with entrenched deep divisions, and this is why the Pulai parliamentary and Simpang Jeram State Assembly by-elections on Sept. 9 are important, not just who is going to be the new MP for Pulai and the new Johore State Assemblyman for Simpang Jeram, but to show Malaysia and the world that it is possible to stop the tsunami of lies, falsehoods, fake news and hate speech in the era of social media.

Hadi has proved to be a very dishonest, irresponsible and untrustworthy political leader as he had not only violated his instruction to PAS members to remember that DAP had helped PAS when the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition tried to oust the party from ruling Kelantan during the 1977 Kelantan Emergency, he had made wild and preposterous allegations against the DAP which he had not been able to substanstiate.

Furthermore, because I am critical of his political leadership, he accused me of promoting Islamophobia!

Clearly, Hadi developed an animus towards me, making wild and preposterous allegations against me, including the lie that I am promoting Islamophobia, because I never proposed him to be Prime Minister of Malaysia.

(Media Statement by DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang in Penang on Tuesday, August 29, 2023)