Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Saturday, 21^st March 2009: 

Ali Rustam just don’t get it why he should resign as Malacca Chief Minister – he should seek enlightenment from Mahathir

Disqualified UMNO Deputy President candidate, Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam just don’t get it when he declared there was no reason for him to step down as Malacca Chief Minister after be was barred from contesting in Umno party elections for money politics.

He even came up with the riposte that “If that is the case, then they should also ask Lim Guan Eng and Anwar Ibrahim to step down as they had been convicted and imprisoned before”.

Ali has made himself into a laughing stock by exhibiting his shocking ignorance of the law, ethics, politics and the great difference between him and the cases of Guan Eng and Anwar.

Both Guan Eng and Anwar were victims of an oppressive and vindictive political apparatus which used the system of justice to do its dirty work through malicious and selective prosecution, jailing them and disenfranchising them from elective office for five years.

Is Ali seriously suggesting that he is in the same shoes as Guan Eng and Anwar – a victim of a pernicious and vindictive political system as represented by Umno?

However unfairly and unjustifiably, both Guan Eng and Anwar had paid their price, not only serving their undeserved jail sentences but also the five-year disenfranchisement from standing for elective office from the date of their release from jail.

Is Ali in the same shoes as Guan Eng and Anwar in having served a jail sentence and been barred from holding elective office for five years thereafter?

If Guan Eng and Anwar are convicted and imprisoned when they are Penang Chief Minister and Parliamentary Opposition Leader respectively, there cannot be no doubt that they will have to step down from their respective positions. Why is Ali claiming an exception?

For someone who could emerge as a “hot-favourite” for election as Umno Deputy President next week if he had not been barred because of involvement in money politics (euphemism for corruption), it is unthinkable that Ali does not know that his attempt to use the cases of Guan Eng and Anwar to hang on as Malacca Chief Minister is completely misguided, frivolous and baseless.

Should Ali step down as Malacca Chief Minister after being barred from standing for UMNO Deputy President although he is the “hot favourite”, because of involvement in money politics and corruption?

He should seek enlightenment from his old master, former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, who had described it most aptly, as reported by the Malaysian Insider, as follows:

He (Mahathir) said that Mohd Ali should be treated the same way former Umno vice-president Tan Sri Mohamed Isa Abdul Samad was treated in 2005.

“Isa was thrown out because he was involved in money politics but he also lost his position as a minister. But here we have a very strange decision.

“He was found to be corrupt but he can remain as the Chief Minister (of Melaka).Now we have a person who is confirmed corrupt but the party accepted him as the chief minister.

“If you pass judgment, you must be consistent. It must apply to everybody in the same way and in the same amount.

“You cannot say, well, he killed that person so he should be hanged. And then he killed another person but this other person is not important, so let him go,” he said.

What say you, Ali Rustam?

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary leader & MP for Ipoh Timor