Fact-check: 2009 'Guan Eng speech' hoax recirculates as polls loom
An image, alleged to be an excerpt from a speech by DAP chairperson Lim Guan Eng as reported by "Chinese newspapers" is circulating on WhatsApp.
However, Malaysiakini's checks found that it is highly likely to be false and traced back to a comment by a blogger claiming to be the DAP politician in 2009.
In the image currently circulating, Lim is claimed to have...
An image, alleged to be an excerpt from a speech by DAP chairperson Lim Guan Eng as reported by "Chinese newspapers" is circulating on WhatsApp.
However, Malaysiakini's checks found that it is highly likely to be false and traced back to a comment by a blogger claiming to be the DAP politician in 2009.
In the image currently circulating, Lim is claimed to have rallied the ethnic Chinese community to capture "anything that the Malays cannot" and ensure that Malays feel grateful to the Chinese.
It claimed that Lim, in a speech reported by the "Chinese newspapers" said this is a ploy to divide the Malays and take over power.
The earliest mention of the same text on the internet is on the blog Minda Intelek Melayu (MIM), once run by former Penang Umno leader Dr Novandri Hassan Basri.
The 'MIM' post titled 'Hasutan Kaum Paling Buruk' (The Worst Incitement of Race) is no longer available, but an excerpt of it was cited and linked to by the blog 'Listed - Voices Around Blogmark'.
'Listed' collates popular blog entries in the Malaysian blogosphere, and circulates them in the comments section of other popular blogs.
'Listed' stated that Novandri had used the account 'LimGuanEngBlog' as his source of information, but stated that the authenticity of 'LimGuanEngBlog' is yet to be determined.
'Lim's blog'
This information matches references in other blogs from that era, which claimed that the inflammatory speech was taken from "Lim's blog", and not a "Chinese newspaper reports" as claimed in the currently viral WhatsApp image.
Checks on leading Chinese-language newspapers using keywords from the alleged speech also found no such report.
Malaysiakini also found a screenshot, published on a blog in 2011, showing that someone with the username 'LimGuanEngBlog' posted the exact remarks - albeit with misspellings - on what looked like a Blogspot website.
The user, 'LimGuanEngBlog', had run the blog called 'My Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng' founded in 2008, but is no longer available. It ran for several years.
When it was operational, the blog often published statements signed off by 'Lim Guan Eng' and was mistaken by many as his official blog for several years, even though Lim maintained his website at limguaneng.com since October 2008.
Today, the user 'LimGuanEngBlog' only has an inactive YouTube account, which contains two playlists - a compilation of videos of anti-Chinese riots in Indonesia in 1998 and recordings of Lim's debate against former Penang chief minister Koh Tsu Koon in 2011.
Revived to match a recent controversy
This is not the first time the hoax was revived since 2009.
In 2011, the same excerpt attributed to Lim was circulating on various Facebook groups, including one called 'Anti-PKR Club'.
The same viral image, attributed to "Chinese newspapers", had also been circulating in 2019 and was debunked by the Facebook page 'Friends of DAP'.
The viral hoax is likely recirculating again on social media today amid controversy over a speech made by Lim in Penang earlier this month.
Chinese-language newspapers initially reported that Lim cautioned that the "Green Wave" phenomenon, largely used to describe PN's sweep of many parliamentary seats in the Northern states, will "destroy Buddhist temples".
Lim said the media had wrongly reported his speech, made in Mandarin, and that he was referring to a Hindu temple demolition in Alor Setar, Kedah in 2020.
Malaysiakini is part of the Malaysian fact-checking alliance JomCheck.
Through JomCheck, Malaysians can submit requests to fact-check a claim by sending a WhatsApp message to the tipline at 017-477 6659 (WhatsApp text only, no calls) or via this link.
