PETALING JAYA: The author of a book which describes the events after Pakatan Harapan came to power in 2018 has urged two senior DAP leaders, who said his claims were “rubbish” and “hogwash”, to read it first before dismissing his work.
Former foreign correspondent turned consultant Romen Bose said DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang and the party’s secretary-general Loke Siew Fook should not just “react to headlines”.
“They should not simply shoot from the hip,” Bose told FMT.
“Given that these were reports given to the then prime minister by the security services, I would think the more important question to ask is why Dr Mahathir Mohamad had allegedly ordered these levers of state to spy on his own coalition members?”
Quoting sources, Bose had, in his book Shattered Hopes, claimed that the Special Branch monitored several DAP leaders, including its stalwart, Lim who, the report said, was keen to “rebuild the Chinese population”.
Bose claimed that the then inspector-general of police Abdul Hamid Bador, who frequently updated Mahathir on the goings-on among fellow PH leaders, had allegedly said that Lim had been quite successful in this.
In dismissing the claims earlier today, Lim, who is DAP’s adviser, said Bose had written “hogwash”. While admitting he had not read the book, he said the latter should “not be pulling things from thin air”.
Loke, meanwhile, had, on June 24, dismissed Bose’s claims as “rubbish”.
Tonight, Bose, a consultant to former prime minister Najib Razak, said there was nothing wrong in persuading Chinese Malaysians to return to the country to rebuild a “New Malaysia”.
“The country had lost so much talent and expertise due to brain drain during the previous administration.” - FMT
