Mahathir...

Veteran DAP leader says all hands needed to save Malaysia from catastrophe.

KUALA LUMPUR: Lim Kit Siang has expressed willingness to work with Dr Mahathir Mohamad if that was what it took to “save Malaysia” from turning into a failed state.
He is the second politician in recent days to have spoken of linking up with Dr Mahathir. On Friday, former law minister Zaid Ibrahim suggested that Dr Mahathir join forces with jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim to oust Najib Razak as prime minister and Umno president.
Under Zaid’s plan, another of Mahathir’s former rivals, Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, would be nominated to be interim prime minister until the next general election, due by 2018.
In a speech to Malaysian students in Cairo today while on a Middle East tour with party stalwarts, Lim renewed his campaign for a new Grand Coalition of politicians from across the aisle and from both sides of the South China Sea to take power.
He said one of the first priorities would be to free Anwar from a five-year jail sentence on a sodomy charge.
Lim also spoke about remark by former information minister Zainuddin Maidin that Dr Mahathir himself might face jail, and not just Najib Razak, should the opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition take power at the next general election, as Dr Mahathir has warned.
Dr Mahathir, campaigning for the ouster of Najib, had said Umno faced certain defeat if Najib was still at the helm then.
Lim said he did not know what Zainuddin meant, but “he appeared to be privy to many skeletons in Mahathir’s cupboard”.
He said that a Grand Coalition was necessary to restore constitutional rule and the rule of law in Malaysia.
Both Pakatan Rakyat and Barisan Nasional faced unprecedented divisions, which had threatened the Malaysian federation as well. That was why he had called on politicians of all sides to form a the Grand Coalition and “restore Malaysia’s greatness”.
“For this formidable task, we must be prepared to put our differences aside and concentrate all our energies on one common agenda, to save Malaysia from all centrifugal forces to tear the country asunder,” he said. He was prepared even to work with Mahathir in order to save Malaysia, he said.