LIM Kit Siang wants Pakatan Harapan leaders to stop attacks on each other without first discussing or getting approval from their parties.

The veteran DAP leader said nobody wanted freedom of speech and expression to be restricted, as it was a fundamental condition for Malaysia to become a democratic society.

“For this reason, I call on all PH leaders, who have raised general concerns about PH’s cohesion, unity and common sense, to cease and desist, and agree to a SOP (standard operating procedure) for expressing criticism or even attacking other PH leaders.

“I call on all PH leaders to stop making any overt attacks on leaders from fellow PH parties without first discussing with and getting green light from their own parties,” the Iskandar Puteri MP said in a statement issued from Hong Kong today.

Lim said if the SOP failed, the PH presidential council should work out a more satisfactory mechanism for PH leaders to express their concerns over the performance or speech of fellow PH party leaders, so the objective of PH to build a new Malaysia is not compromised.

His statement comes after Bersatu strategist Rais Hussin Mohamed Ariff cautioned that PH leaders were courting trouble with their public spats.

In a series of tweets today, Rais called on his party men and those in the PH pact to set aside their egos.

PH leaders have been publicly sniping at each other the past week over a series of issues.

There are quarters in Bersatu demanding the resignation of Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department P. Waytha Moorthy for allegedly inflaming tensions after the Seafield Hindu temple riot broke out  late last month.

Bersatu Youth (Armada) chief Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman recently had a role in handing a memorandum to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to call for the sacking of Waytha Moorthy. Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy, slammed the move, and the two have traded barbs over the matter .

There have also been talks about a power struggle going on between Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and PKR president Anwar Ibrahim, the prime minister-in-waiting, after the recent defection by a number of Umno MPs. 

Some MPs who left Umno a few months ago have joined Bersatu, leading to speculation that the more recent deserters will also follow suit to bolster the party’s numbers in Parliament. 

Popular Permatang Pauh MP Nurul Izzah Anwar recently resigning as PKR vice-president and Penang PKR chief, and from her federal appointed posts is said to be over her unhappiness with the Umno defections.

Her father, Anwar said yesterday that Izzah became disillusioned after Umno MPs deserted their party, with talk swirling that they did so to save themselves from possible prosecution and shore up the numbers of another political party. – December 22, 2018.