The Kulai MP said it was wrong of MCA deputy president Wee Ka Siong to make such an assertion in an interview with China Press.
Wee is reported to have said that GE14 presented an opportunity for Chinese voters to tell Mahathir that they did not trust him. Mahathir is the prime minister candidate for Pakatan Harapan, should the opposition win GE14.
Calling Wee’s remarks misplaced, the Johor DAP chairman said Mahathir’s legacy as prime minister for 22 years from 1981 had “never been a total failure.”
“When he stepped down in 2003, despite obvious flaws, even DAP leaders recognised his contributions especially in putting Malaysia on the world map and modernising the nation and its economies,” he said.
“The point is Mahathir had voluntarily given up power before,” he said in a statement today.
“He is returning to put the country back on the right track, and hand the nation to good hands in 2020, the year that Malaysia was once promised to join the ranks of great nations,” Liew said, referring to the Mahathir administration’s “Vision 2020” programme.
At PH’s annual convention on Jan 7, the coalition leadership endorsed Mahathir, 92, as its prime minister-designate with PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail named deputy prime minister candidate.
PH had also announced that it would submit a fresh appeal to get a royal pardon for former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in order to lift a ban on him from active politics, with the aim of making him the eighth prime minister to succeed Mahathir.
Anwar, who was deputy prime minister under Mahathir from 1993 to 1998, has been serving a five-year jail term for sodomy since 2015. He is expected to be released this year based on a one-third remission of his sentence for good behaviour.
Liew, who is also DAP political education director, also disputed the claim by Wee, who is Ayer Itam MP, that PPBM might work with Umno if it did not win sufficient seats in a new PH government.
He said Wee had effectively admitted that Umno could be “the largest opposition party” after the polls.
“When Umno loses power it would mean Umno no longer has at least 40 of the 88 federal seats it won in (the last general election in) 2013,” he said.
“This means Pakatan Harapan component parties (would) have won all those seats. By then, there is no need for any Umno elected representative to cross over because Pakatan Harapan would have already obtained a majority.”
IDEAS: Dr M’s legacy secure, despite efforts to erase contributions