Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng today expressed shock that a BN-linked newspaper had repeated "the lies" by attributing to him again what he had not said during his debate with MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek last Saturday.

NONEThe BN-controlled media was trying to "whitewash" Chua's personal attacks against him during the debate, Lim said.

The media was also attempting to whitewash Chua's purported personal attacks against his predecessor Ong Tee Keat during the debate titled "Is the 2-party system becoming a 2-race system?"

Lim denied ever making any personal attack on Chua and pointed out that such attacks only came from Chua.

"If personal attacks are the criteria for success, then there is no doubt that Chua is the victor," he told a press conference at Komtar today. "Fortunately, there was live telecast, so they can be no distortion of what happened."

'The Star repeats its lies'

Another attempt to whitewash the MCA, Lim said, was to republish a lie it had reported and attributed to him as saying during the debate.

Lim had denied saying, "We do not agree the Prime Minister must always be Malay because we want the people to decide" as The Star had quoted him saying during the debate.

NONEThe BN-linked paper published a tiny retraction on page 6 today, but made no apology for the error.

However, Lim pointed out, in The Star today, its columnist Baradan Kuppusamy wrote, "Furthermore, he (Lim) said the Pakatan did not agree that only a Malay could be the Prime Minister, and that this should be put to the people to decide."

He said: "This is not the only lie by Baradan. Another lie by Baradan in his column is that I only wanted a second debate in English or Bahasa Malaysia now, to repair the damage from having a scarred reputation after the Mandarin debate."

Lim said he had asked in writing, on Feb 15, three days before the debate, for a second debate in English or Bahasa Malaysia for the benefit of non-Chinese speakers.

This, he added, was also agreed to by Chua before the first Mandarin debate on Saturday, Feb 18.

"For this reason, The Star should withdraw and apologise for Baradan's column that does not adhere to facts in line with the spirit of ‘Comment is free, but facts are sacred'," Lim said.

He added that he had no objection to a second debate in English or Bahasa Malaysia, provided it was "neutral and ensured impartial treatment" to both debaters.


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