[ad_1]
GEORGE TOWN: DAP Secretary General Lim Guan Eng has reiterated his support for Anwar Ibrahim and Shafie Apdal as prime minister candidates should Pakatan Harapan return to power.
In an interview at his home here, he said the heads of PKR and Warisan remained his firm favorites for the top job.
He claimed that PH members, including deputies from coalition parties, were confident in the ability of either candidate to shore up support to form a government.
“We support Anwar to have the numbers, but if he can’t, we should give Shafie a chance and due respect to an East Malaysian first prime minister,” he said.
Lim and Amanah President Mohamad Sabu devised the Anwar-or-Shafie plan in July as a way to resolve a dead end between former Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar. They said it could only be successful with the backing of all PH-affiliated MPs.
Some PKR leaders disagreed with the plan and said PH should stick to the plan drawn up before the 2018 general election, which had Mahathir and Anwar as candidates.
When asked what it was like to work with Mahathir, Lim said the former prime minister was firm on the issues that interested him a lot, but that he was willing to listen to cabinet members.
“He gave everyone a chance to speak before giving their opinion. Then the cabinet would decide. Of course, most of the time he would persuade cabinet members to accept it. “
Lim also recalled that Mahathir had a strong dislike for national debts and the distribution of alms.
“He had a strong personal anathema towards debt and its accumulation. He kept pushing us to reduce debts.
“We managed to reduce the debt in terms of percentage of GDP. But with the current Covid-19 situation, we have no choice but to increase debt because we are facing an economic crisis.
“Mahathir also felt that we should encourage people to work and not give them gifts. But we say that we must not only teach people to fish, but also feed them so that they can become self-sufficient later on. “
He also said that Mahathir first rejected his idea to get rid of road tolls, but eventually agreed to a gradual reduction over time, starting with the 18% cut on all PLUS roads.
Lim, who has been a member of the DAP since 1981, is currently serving his third and final term as the party’s general secretary. He said he would gladly accept any new role DAP gives him.
He called the DAP a party of integrity, noting that none of its 42 members elected to Parliament in 2018, unlike several MPs from Umno, PKR and other parties, had jumped ship to join what he called the “unelected government. “from Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin. .
He said that even the president of Umno, Zahid Hamidi, was impressed and told him: “Your party is very stable. Not even a deputy jumped “.
