Even Karpal cannot 'tahan' Mahathir

Wednesday April 9, 2008

Karpal: Stop public outbursts

PETALING JAYA: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad should have retired with dignity and honour and refrained from criticising the present prime minister, DAP chairman Karpal Singh said.

He said retired prime ministers conventionally did not interfere in the performance of their successors.

After Dr Mahathir stepped down in 2003 and handed over the mantle to Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the former should have refrained from political activity, he said.

“When the curtain falls, the wise recede into the twilight with dignity and honour. Dr Mahathir should cease his public outbursts, which have brought embarrassment upon the country and himself.

“Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Hussein Onn retired as gentlemen and became apolitical and respected statesmen.

“Dr Mahathir should emulate them,” Karpal Singh said in a statement yesterday.

On another matter, Karpal Singh said Dr Mahathir had apparently meant every word when he said lawyers should be hanged.

“Dr Mahathir meant every word because he had a phobia about lawyers,” he added.

He said Dr Mahathir’s statement had clearly been borne out by what he had said on Feb 2, 2000, during a meeting with students in London, that it was Dr Mahathir’s private wish to hang private lawyers, including Karpal Singh.

Param said he would have by tomorrow a written reply to Dr Mahathir’s letter, published in an English newspaper yesterday.

In the letter, Dr Mahathir lashed out at Param, saying that he himself had made libellous remarks about a fellow Malaysian when he was a member of the United Nations Commission.