BUTTERWORTH: Lim Guan Eng said he has yet to be called up by police in their probe against him for allegedly touching on 3R (race, religion and royalty) issues recently.
However, the DAP chairman said he was ready to cooperate with the authorities if asked to have his statement recorded.
Claiming his statement had been misconstrued, he said the issue was that a news portal had inaccurately interpreted what he had said.
The Bagan member of parliament said the Mandarin language newspaper article on which the news portal had based its report had, in fact, issued a statement on Sunday.
"According to them (the Mandarin language newspaper), the news portal had made a mistake in the translation of their report. When you have misinterpreted something, why are you blaming me?
"Clearly, we understand if you don't understand Mandarin. However, don't misinterpret on purpose so it can be turned into a political weapon to tarnish someone's image," he said.
Lim clarified that he had spoken about a 70-year-old Hindu temple which had been demolished by the Kedah government in 2020 and not what had been reported by the news portal.
"'They' tried to manipulate what I had said by writing that I talked about a Buddhist temple. If that wasn't enough, 'they' played up the issue and even lodged a police report based on a lie."
Asked if he would take legal action against the portal, Lim said he did not have any such plan at the moment.
On Sunday, federal Criminal Investigation Department deputy director (forensics and strategic planning) Datuk G.S. Suresh Kumar said police had received a report against Lim.
He had said the report was lodged against the DAP leader for allegedly touching on 3R issues by purportedly saying the "green wave" of Pas would lead to the destruction of temples and the denying of religious rights in Penang.
This was based on the news portal report which claimed that Lim said this when telling Penang voters not to allow the "green wave" to find a footing in the state.