Guan Eng: DAP has no direct political ties with Singapore’s PAP
KUALA LUMPUR, April 8 — Lim Guan Eng denied today Utusan Malaysia's allegation that DAP has direct political ties with Singapore's ruling People's Action Party (PAP) and labelled the daily a "Peeping Tom newspaper" for revealing his Friday meeting with the party's female MPs.
The Penang Chief Minister told a press conference in George Town, Penang, that the Umno-owned daily's reference to the friendly meeting as suspicious was made in "very bad faith and bad intention".
Despite admitting to the meeting, Lim said it was merely a courtesy call by 14 of the party's female MPs for the sake of building "government to government" ties and not to foster a political relationship.
DAP, stressed the party secretary-general, "has no direct political ties with the PAP".
"Even then, Awang Selamat questions," he complained, referring to the popular pseudonym used by the Malay daily's editors who had questioned the meeting in an editorial today.
"It shows they have Peeping Toms... We now have a Peeping Tom Utusan Malaysia.
"This is unethical, this is immoral, this is completely unacceptable - A Peeping Tom newspaper," Lim said.
The DAP secretary-general added that in his position as a state government leader, he often receives courtesy calls from lawmakers across the world, including MPs from New Zealand, Indonesia, Australia, Germany and other nations.
He added that it was not during every visit that he would call for media coverage, saying if he did, his detractors would label him as "publicity crazy".
Lim also told Utusan Malaysia to look at the delegation that its owners in Umno receive, pointing out that Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin had once established a direct formal relationship with the Communist Youth League of China.
"So why question this visit? Is it because it was by female MPs?" Lim asked.
"They are Peeping Toms of women MPs on a visit to me for a government to government relationship".
In its editorial today, Awang had accused Lim of meeting with 30 MPs from PAP, allegedly to strengthen DAP's ties with the ruling Singaporean party.
"Awang wants to ask, what is the purpose of this visit? Is it got to do with strengthening ties between the Penang DAP government and PAP Singapore?" the Umno paper asked.
It reminded readers that DAP and PAP had "historical ties" which began when Singapore was still a part of Malaysia over 40 years ago.
"DAP was formed to replace PAP which was under Lee Kuan Yew at the time, where Singapore left Malaysia in 1965.
"This is one of the reasons PAP wanted to control the country's politics and go against Malay rights...the Malaysian Malaysia concept which was Kuan Yew's idea was kept alive by DAP," claimed Awang.
Awang stressed that DAP-PAP ties are at its most "strategic" stage today, saying that proof of this was Penang chief minister Lim's "frequent" visits to Singapore.
"If this true, Awang is puzzled, what is the agenda....what else is this for, (except) to take care of PAP's feelings, if we know the game they are playing."
