DAP has denied allegations that the party wants to oust Education Minister Maszlee Malik and replace him with his deputy Teo Nie Ching.
Party stalwart Lim Kit Siang said the claims were made by two blogs, adding that this was likely a divisive tactic being employed by Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Jho Low.
The posts, published on the Daily News 24h and Ku Lihat Langit Biru sites, alleged that DAP was looking to force Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad into sacking Maszlee which would see fellow party member and deputy minister Teo Nie Cheng automatically succeed him.
The two websites ran reports with the same headline: Ahli DAP LANCARKAN KEMPEN ‘UNDUR MASZLEE’ (DAP members launch campaign to ‘sack Maszlee’) – are fake.
It was further alleged in the two posts that DAP was looking to oust Maszlee because he was seen as pro-Malay and had failed to deliver on his manifesto promise of freeing up the Simpang Renggam toll.
“There is no truth whatsoever in the postings, which are lies and falsehoods. DAP had never asked the prime minister to replace Mazslee with Teo as education minister,” Lim said in a statement today.
He also denied that DAP had anything to do with any petition seeking Maszlee’s resignation.
“DAP has nothing to do with any petition asking Maszlee to resign,” he said.
He said the lies are proof of “new tactics in the Najib-Jho Low game plan to cause collapse and disintegration of the Pakatan Harapan government to enjoy immunity for the 1MDB kleptocratic scandal”.
He added that former prime minister Najib Razak and his ‘Psy-War Ops Centre’ were stoking these rifts.
“(One of the tactics are) stirring up division and dissension among different personalities from different PH parties, which could be twisted and distorted into racial or religious conflicts.
“Such a dastardly lie is only the beginning of more lies and falsehoods which will appear in social media in the coming weeks to cause tension, division and disintegration of PH,” he said.
He called on PH leaders to have a “new discipline” to thwart the people seeking to wreck the New Malaysia as it will see the return of Najib.
“A new discipline is needed by all in the PH coalition if the wreckers of the agenda of a New Malaysia are not to succeed, which can only bring back Najib, Jho Low and their string of mega kleptocratic scandals which will end up in Malaysia becoming a failed, rogue and kleptocratic state,” he said.
Maszlee has come under intense scrutiny of late with DAP central executive committee member P Ramasamy likening Maszlee to Umno.
DAP central executive committee member Teng Chang Khim called Maszlee “foolish” and “an idiot”.
Ipoh Timur MP Wong Kah Woh and Bercham assemblyperson Ong Boon Piow had last year attacked Maszlee over funding to Chinese independent schools while Bukit Assek assemblyperson Irene Mary Chang and Sarawak DAP Youth publicity secretary Abdul Aziz Isa had criticised him over proselytisation activities in East Malaysia.
Two petitions have already been initiated calling for Maszlee’s head to roll.