DAP secretary general Lim Guan Eng will not engage in the war of words currently fought between former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad and current premier Najib Abdul Razak, lest he gets trapped between the two.

Guan Eng says he would not want to be trapped in the fight between Mahathir and Najib

Lim, who is also Penang chief minister, said he is simply easy meat for Mahathir to attack Najib.

“I think Mahathir was trying to be very mischievous because obviously, his main target is not me, and we know who his main target is. But in order to give the credibility that he is not going against Umno but only against Najib, he must also attack the opposition. So I am very easy meat for him as non-Malay, I am an easy target to bully.

“So I don’t want to get entangled in the fight between him and Najib — that is their fight. I don’t want to get involved. I don’t want to be like the Malay saying, “gajah dan gajah bertembung, pelanduk mati di tengah,” (when two elephants fight, the mousedeer is trapped between) I don’t want to be the pelanduk,” he said.

Lim was responding to Mahathir’s statement yesterday that he (Mahathir) would write letters to Lim and Najib to ask both to resign.

Mahathir had said this when asked by Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim during a book launch yesterday what Mahathir would say if he could write letters to Najib and Lim. Mahathir who was Prime Minister for 22 years, has of late been vociferous in his criticism of Najib, especially over the 1Malaysian Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.

However, Lim urged Najib to meet Mahathir head-on in a debate, like a “gladiator in an arena.”

“I feel that Najib should respond to the challenge of a debate from Mahathir. Najib should not be writing on his blogs in the form of frequently asked questions — it is all a very controlled, sterile and laboratory-like type of environment. Go and face Mahathir like a gladiator in the arena, and let the people decide, so that they can see the cut and thrust of the debate,” Lim said.

Lim had earlier launched the Kuala Lumpur office of Penang-based think tank, Penang Institute.

He said the KL office was opened in a central location in KL to expand the think-tank to the capital city so that it can continue to grow new ideas which work and would benefit the people.

– The Rocket