PETALING JAYA: DAP veteran politician Lim Kit Siang has denied telling former Bukit Bintang MP Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye that the party leadership had decided to move him to another seat for the 1990 general election as claimed in the latter’s recently released memoir.
“I never told Lee that he would not be contesting the Bukit Bintang constituency, and the thought of Lee contesting in any seat apart from Bukit Bintang had never occurred to me before the 1990 general election,” Lim said yesterday.
In his memoir, Call Lee Lam Thye – Recalling a Lifetime of Service, Lee wrote of how he endured unbearable internal politics, including relentless allegations.
According to Lee, in the run-up to the 1990 general election, he was informed by the party leadership that he would be removed from Bukit Bintang, where he had served for four terms.
“Till today, 32 years later, I still do not know why Lee quit politics on the eve of the 1990 general election,” said Lim, who is the Iskandar Puteri MP.
Lim said he checked his own records a day after Lee’s announcement to retire from politics, stressing that he had tried to persuade Lee to change his mind.
“I had several telephone conversations with him, and after a midnight telephone call, I thought I saw light at the end of the tunnel, and that Lee would reconsider his position.
“It proved to be otherwise, and he announced he was retiring from politics,” he said.