Were Mahathir’s warning and Azmin’s arrogant statement hints to Lim’s arrest?

On the day after Tun Mahathir Mohamad posted a 20-item statement on his social media account about corruption and its impact on the nation on 6 August 2020, his ally and DAP secretary-general, Lim Guan Eng was called in by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in the evening to give statement over the controversial RM6.3 billion Penang Undersea Tunnel project. 

He was then detained by the commission to be charged at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on 7 August under Section 16 (a) (A) of the MACC Act 2009. For these charges, he is represented by fellow DAP members Ramkarpal Singh and Gobind Singh Deo. This former Penang chief minister is said to be facing another two charges at the Penang Sessions Court on 10 August 2020 under Section 23 of the MACC Act 2009. Ironically, Lim’s arrest was also made hours after he refuted Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz’s debate on the country’s economy, including on GST and the Harapan Fund, in the Parliament. During the session, Tengku Zafrul confirmed that the country was in debt of RM1.2 trillion, a figure that was announced by Lim when the Pakatan Harapan (PH) ruled, and that the Harapan Fund was used to pay off the 1MDB debts. How embarrassing this admission is!

Interestingly, Lim’s arrest has either been justified or defied by both the people and fellow lawmakers. Pro-PH and DAP supporters lashed out the conviction by saying that the arrest was simply an act of revenge by the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government without ground evidence. Meanwhile, PN and Barisan Nasional (BN) lawmakers and supporters saw the arrest as an act of justice following the similar conviction and sentence onto former prime minister Dato’ Seri Najib Razak linking to 1MDB financial scandal.

The question is, why did his arrest come right after Tun Mahathir’s statement on his social media account? Was Tun Mahathir hinting on the repercussion that Lim is going to face? And was Dato’ Seri Azmin Ali’s tweet congratulating Tengku Zafrul a sign of arrogance, knowing that Lim will be charged on the same day? Is Lim going to be another black sheep for Tun Mahathir’s mistakes when PH was the government? Is this a move to break PH and weaken DAP? No wonder Azmin Ali, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Tengku Zafrul were seen elated in the image shared by the MITI minister! 

 

By Adillah Jaafar

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