On Thursday, the DAP’s Yap Hoi Liong, aged 45, accepted a challenge thrown by the Barisan Nasional’s Tiong Thai King, aged 71, to scale Mount Kinabalu.

Tiong, a BN direct candidate, made the challenge on Wednesday night when Yap had urged him to retire from politics because of his age.

He said the climb would prove who was more physically fit. He also issued the same challenge to Benny Lee, 49, the independent candidate, according to The Ant Daily.

Yap, who is seeking re-election, accepted the challenge at a ceramah attended by about 3,000 people at which he said he would gladly climb Kinabalu or any other mountain, but his priority was to serve the people, the report said.

He made a counter-challenge for Tiong to reveal the details of his personal accounts, and to sell off his personal assets and donate the money to charity.

Yap also criticised Tiong for purportedly having tried to ridicule and slander Yap and his family by twisting a recent statement Yap had made in response to a development promise by caretaker Chief Minister Adenan Satem.

Adenan was reported to have stated his confidence in Tiong’s victory by announcing a RM400,000 development grant for the 91-door Rumah Philip Kayak Brandah, to be disbursed through Tiong.

Yap’s response was that he would be unable to raise a similar sum, even if he sold his wife and children, a remark pounced upon by Tiong, who described Yap as an irresponsible and untrustworthy husband for making such an remark.

Yap said he reserved the right to take legal action against them for intentionally twisting the facts.