KUALA LUMPUR, July 3 – DAP leaders converged on Concorde Hotel tonight, which was named as the headquarters of the so-called “Red Bean Army” (RBA), the alleged online operation of cybertroopers supposedly funded by the DAP.
Led by party adviser Lim Kit Siang, the DAP leaders called for Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders to put a stop on the RBA accusations, which they claimed have reached “extreme unbelieveability”.
“The rigmarole of the RBA has gone on for long enough ... It’s a reflection of how ridiculous Malaysian politics have descended into,” Lim told reporters here.
“The whole RBA joke has gotten to an extent of being completely unbelievable,” added DAP national publicity chief Tony Pua.
Pua pointed out that it is getting ridiculous that despite not having any proof, the issue of RBA has been raised for a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) involving senior retired judges, and is even being discussed in the Cabinet.
Yesterday, it was reported that Cabinet will discuss a proposal to form an RCI on the allegation that DAP funded the RBA’s cybertroopers during Election 2013 to demonise BN leaders and supporters.
Two BN backbenchers have also told the Dewan Rakyat yesterday that the government must introduce a special court to adjudicate cases on multimedia violations as the present set-up is inadequate, citing the RBA as an example.
According to Lim, the DAP leaders decided to pay a casual visit to the hotel to “see for themselves” the alleged operating centre of RBA, for which they have been accused of spending millions. He also challenged the police to raid the hotel if the allegations were indeed true.
Seated at a long table, the politicians shared a light moment among themselves as they were served ais kacang by the hotel, which was caught by surprise.
“Even the ais kacang has no red bean,” joked Pua, as he digged into his bowl.
Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia had front-paged a report on the RBA in May, alleging that DAP is paying RM3,000 monthly to some 200 RBA members, and has spent around RM1.5 million to fund the operation over the past six years.
The daily had also claimed that part of the RBA’s duties was to attack any politician, businessman or entertainer seen as pro-BN via social media sites, operating from two centres nationwide – Concorde Hotel and Komtar in Penang, which is currently ruled by DAP.
Lim however immediately rubbished claims of RBA’s existence, and claimed that it was merely a figment of Utusan Malaysia’s imagination and that of its owners.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim said in Parliament yesterday that Putrajaya is mulling an RCI into RBA after receiving a memorandum from 130 Malay NGOs which reportedly alleged that 300 to 3,000 cybertroopers with a budget between RM100 million and RM1 billion over the past six years have been operating to demonise BN through social media networks.
