KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 11— The Communists had not aided the opposition’s victories in the country’s 1969 polls as claimed by a former senior Special Branch (SB) officer, DAP’s Lim Kit Siang has said.

In disputing the claim, Lim said that the Communists had instead opposed the 1969 elections and wanted both the public and the opposition to snub the polls.

The Communists even labelled the opposition as “stooges” and “puppets” of the Alliance government - the predecessor to the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition today - for participating in the national polls, Lim (picture) said.

“The facts were the exact opposite, as the communists were calling for a boycott of the 1969 general election and the Opposition parties which participated in the 1969 general election were condemned by the communists as ‘stooges’ and ‘puppets’ of the Alliance for going against their call to the people to reject the ballot box and democratic process and to take to street protests and extra-constitutional struggle.

“Far from aiding Opposition parties, the communists wanted the people to boycott the 1969 general elections and the Opposition to fare badly,” the DAP parliamentary leader said in a statement today.

Lim questioned former SB deputy chief Tan Sri Yuen Yuet Leng’s version of events that he reportedly gave at Telekom Malaysia’s “Cerita Tanah Airku” (Story of my Homeland) event in conjunction with Malaysia Day.

“I do not know what was the basis for the Special Branch arriving at its conclusion in 1969 that the communists had helped the opposition parties to win a substantial number of seats in the 1969 general election when the communists had been doing the very opposite in the run-up to the 1969 general election to campaign for a boycott of elections.

“What are the ‘substantial number of seats’ won by  the DAP, Gerakan, People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and PAS in the 1969 general election as a result of the ‘assistance’ by the communists?” the Gelang Patah MP asked, making references to Gerakan and PPP that are now in the ruling BN coalition.

In his statement, Lim quoted a recent report on Yuen’s comments, with the latter saying that the penetration of political parties by the Communists had brought about the Opposition’s victory.

“The communist had infiltrated many legal organisations, including political parties, and that is what led to the Opposition winning (in the 1969 general election),” Yuen was quoted as saying by local daily The Sun on September 9.

Lim also said the DAP had done its best to stop both Communists and the Special Branch from sneaking into the party.

“I do not deny that the communists, like the Special Branch, had tried to infiltrate the Opposition, and DAP had done its utmost to ensure that we were not infiltrated either by the communists or the Special Branch,” he said.

Lim’s statement comes amid alleged attempts by the recently-released film “Tanda Putera” to link Communists to the DAP.

In 1969, the Alliance lost both the popular vote and its two-thirds majority to the opposition.

In Election 2013, the BN coalition managed to retain its decades-old grip on power, but lost the popular vote and failed to regain the two-thirds parliamentary majority that it let slip in Election 2008.