Teng said Chong Eu, Gerakan’s founding president, was more principled than Kit Siang and would not likely have swayed from his political leanings.
He added that Kit Siang’s remark was insensitive as it concerned a person who was no longer alive.
“Kit Siang has no moral standing to make any remarks on Chong Eu,” he said in a press conference at the state Gerakan headquarters here.
Yesterday, Kit Siang said Chong Eu would have crossed over to PH in view of the country’s current state of affairs.
“I believe that if Chong Eu were still alive today, he would have left the dark side and crossed over to support the PH campaign to save Malaysia from the trajectory of a failed, rogue and kleptocratic state,” he said.
However, Teng, who is also Penang Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman, said Kit Siang should remember the past, when the DAP veteran was against Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
During the 1990 general election, he said, Kit Siang had used former prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman to oust Mahathir from office.
Teng said Kit Siang had even worked with Semangat 46 to beat Mahathir and “save Malaysia”.
“Now, Kit Siang has brought out Dr M to beat Najib to save Malaysia again. Is this what you call a principled man?
“So Kit Siang has no right to speak about Chong Eu. He was a proper statesman and never blamed his predecessor Wong Pow Nee’s government for his mistakes in his administration.”
Teng was believed to be referring to Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, who has blamed the previous BN government for issues currently affecting the state.
“We admit Gerakan has lost Penang in past elections, but we are proud to say that none of us was implicated in any abuse of power or corruption cases before,” he added, referring to Guan Eng’s ongoing corruption trial.