KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 17 — Liew Chin Tong’s office today denied the deputy defence minister said the recent arrests of 12 people allegedly linked to the defunct Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was an attempt to demonise the DAP as reported.
It said Liew, who is also DAP political education chief, made no mention of LTTE during his interview with news portal The Malaysian Insight yesterday, and specifically did not want to respond to queries on that.
“The audio recording does not indicate the LTTE issue was ever brought up, but instead spoke of how DAP has been turned into a bogeyman for so long,” Liew’s office said in a statement.
It added that it has contacted the news portal for a correction.
In the news report, Liew was quoted as saying the recent arrest of its two assemblymen — DAP assemblymen G. Saminathan and P. Gunasekaren — on suspicions of ties to the now-defunct Sri Lankan separatist movement classified as a terrorist organisation was part of a strategy by Pakatan Harapan (PH) foes to reduce Malay-Muslim support for the ruling government.
He added that this has been the case as early as 2008, when DAP began political cooperation with Malay-based parties including its erstwhile ally PAS and now Parti Amanah and Parti Pribumi Bersatu.
Liew also said PH opponents painted DAP as the “source of all problems”, that it was responsible for the May 13 race riots in 1969, and that it was a communist organisation.
