“I fully agree with PPBM’s strategist Rais Hussein’s warning against friendly fire among Pakatan Harapan politicians as this can lead to negative perceptions and awful consequences for the coalition.
“While no one wants any restriction on freedom of speech and expression — which has always been one of our fundamental pre-conditions for Malaysia to become a democratic society — it is also important to ensure that the cohesion, unity as well as common sense of purpose of Pakatan Harapan are not undermined or even destroyed by unbridled speech and expression.”
Lim urged Pakatan Harapan leaders to stop hitting out at each other and agree to standard operating procedures (SOP) for expression of criticism or even attacks on other leaders.
“If such a SOP does not work out satisfactorily, the Pakatan Harapan Presidential Council should step in to work out a more satisfactory mechanism for Pakatan Harapan leaders to express their concerns and dissatisfaction, whether on the speeches or performance of leaders, so that the objective of Pakatan Harapan to build a New Malaysia is not in any way compromised.”
Recently, Pakatan Harapan leaders have been criticising each other. This became more obvious with the death of fireman Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim as a result of injuries in the riot at the Seafield Sri Maha Mariamman Temple on Nov 27.
The temple is involved in a relocation dispute with the developer which owns the land.
There have been calls for Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department P Waytha Moorthy to resign after he and a group of other ethnic Indian Pakatan Harapan leaders accused the police of being slow in stopping the mob that entered the temple early on Nov 26 and caused a riot.
More than 20 cars were torched and several people were hurt in the violence, which continued the following night.
Bukit Gelugor DAP MP Ramkarpal Singh today criticised Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman for asking Waytha to resign, stating it was unfortunate and did not reflect well on the unity in the government.
“If at all Waytha is to be reprimanded, such a reprimand ought to come from the prime minister and not his fellow ministers.
“Moreover, such public outbursts between fellow ministers certainly do not inspire public confidence in the government,” he said in a statement.
The MP said publicly calling for the resignation of a fellow minister is certainly wrong as this goes against well-established conventions of collective ministerial responsibility.
He said such Cabinet collective responsibility is a constitutional convention in parliamentary systems.
Members of the Cabinet must publicly support all governmental decisions made in Cabinet, even if they do not privately agree with them, he added.
“I personally feel that to suggest that Waytha ought to be solely blamed for the Seafield temple issue and, therefore, ought to resign is, as correctly pointed out by some netizens, akin to demanding Syed Saddiq’s resignation for Malaysia’s loss to Vietnam in the recently-concluded AFF Championships.
“Surely, that is going a bit too far,” Ramkarpal added.
Syed Saddiq, the PPBM Youth chief, had said he was ready to face any action if his call for Waytha’s resignation is deemed wrong.
Syed Saddiq had also said that he did not enter politics just to “play safe” or be a “yes man” or just to keep silent or turn a deaf ear to the public’s voice.
Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy had earlier criticised Syed Saddiq after joining his wing in calling for Waytha’s resignation, saying the call insulted Mahathir’s wisdom in his selection of his Cabinet members.
Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had said the decision to retain or sack Waytha was his to make.
“People can express their opinion and it’s up to me to decide. (But) I haven’t decided,” he had said, referring to demands for Waytha to be sacked.