KUALA LUMPUR: DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang today admitted that there were attempts to get Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye to contest elsewhere before the 1990 General Election, but claimed they came from other party leaders and not him.
This comes a day after Lim denied there was such attempts, which led Lee to resign from politics.
The Iskandar Puteri member of parliament said he "just learnt" that young DAP leaders had met Lee before the 1990 General Election to ask him to contest elsewhere instead of the Bukit Bintang constituency.
"But these suggestions were not on behalf of the party leadership," he claimed in a statement that was posted on his blog, https://blog.limkitsiang.com (https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2022/06/19/i-have-just-learnt-that-young-da...), today.
Lim, in the same posting, also listed a list of headlines of his comments in the wake of Lee's departure from politics.
He claimed that he had then acted as a mediator between Lee and the Federal Territory DAP committee.
Lim said this was because Lee, at that time, was convinced that he was the target of an "insidious campaign" within the Federal Territory DAP involving certain party leaders.
"Furthermore, if it is true that I had told Lam Thye that he was not to be nominated for Bukit Bintang constituency, it would be impossible to keep the news under wraps for 32 years — inside and outside the DAP!" Lim claimed.
On Saturday, Lim denied asking Lee to contest elsewhere as described in the prominent social activist's recently launched biography "Call Lee Lam Thye: Recalling a Lifetime of Service".
Lim claimed there was no such attempt and that Lee's departure was a "mystery".
In his immediate response, Lee said he stood by what he said that "every word is true" in the biography and that there was no reason to fabricate stories.
Lee also said he would no longer respond to any comment from Lim or anybody else, and would let the people be the judge in this issue.