By Lim Kit Siang

The whole rigmarole about DAP funding a “Red Bean Army” of 3,000 cybertroopers with a budget ranging from RM100 million to RM1 billion in the past six years to demonise and character-assassinate has completely gone berserk with Barisan Nasional Ministers and Members of Parliament quoting lies as gospel truths in Parliament and outside.

Yesterday, at least two Barisan Nasional MPs spoke about the “Red Bean Army” in Parliament, but their credibility is no higher than  that of  the Gerakan MP for Simpang Renggam, Liang Teck Meng who made history by turning himself into an instant parliamentary disgrace yesterday.

Teck Meng purportedly quoted from WiliLeaks to allege that Parliamentary Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim “owns 30 foreign bank accounts” worth RM332 million in four countries, including Israel, when such information is not available on WikiLeaks but only concocted on blogs by UMNO cybertroopers.

Like the “Red Bean Army” canard, this is another example of UMNO/BN cybertroopers finally succeeding in misleading their own leaders!

Is Teck Meng prepared to admit that he had told lies in Parliament yesterday and to surrender himself to the Parliamentary Privileges Committee for the proper punishment that should be meted out to an MP who could tell such reckless lies in Parliament?

What is shocking is that there are Ministers who are prepared to believes such lies, like the falsehoods by Teck Meng and the canards about the  DAP funding the “Red Bean Army” of 3,000 cybertroopers with a budget of RM100 million to RM1 billion in the past six years, to the extent that the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Shahidan Kassim is officially preparing a paper for the Cabinet on Friday in response to a memorandum by 130 Malay-Muslim NGOs for a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) on the “Red Bean Army” of cybertroopers.

Will Shahidan propose in Cabinet the  establishment of RCI on Utusan Malaysia’s racist, inflammatory and seditious provocations in the past four years if 1,000 or 2,000 Malaysians or more sign a memorandum for this purpose?

I can guarantee that the memorandum for a RCI on Utusan Malaysia will be backed up with facts and not lies and falsehoods, like the memorandum on “Red Bean Army”.

If Shahidan can give an assurance that such a memorandum of facts by thousands or even tens of thousands of Malaysians calling for a RCI on Utusan Malaysia will be raised at the Cabinet, I am prepared to start work on such a memorandum.

Those who want RM350 million to fund Umno/BN cybertroopers for the next five years should come out in the open to present their case for such an expenditure, instead of relying on lies and falsehoods about the DAP’s funding of the fictitious “Red Bean Army” to bolster their demand.

Those who concoct the “Red Bean Army” tall tale even go to the extent as to allege that this mythical army operate from various centres throughout the country, specifically naming two places – Komtar in Penang and Hotel Concorde in Kuala Lumpur.

DAP MPs will visit Hotel Concorde on 3rd of July 2013 to locate where is the  “command centre” of this mythical  “Red Bean Army”. – The Rocket