Quality of a Leader

That is what I call a true leader. Knowing a mistake and quick to tender an apology. Not like some.

Kit Siang apologises for ‘doormat’ incident

By TEH ENG HOCK

PETALING JAYA: DAP veteran leader Lim Kit Siang has apologised over the “doormat” incident, where party members walked on a large poster of Hee Yit Foong, Mohd Osman Jailu and Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi during a DAP Perak convention on Monday.

The three were Pakatan Rakyat assemblymen who left the coalition to become Barisan Nasional-friendly independents, causing the Perak state government to fall.

“I was taken by surprise when confronted with the doormat and tried to avoid stepping on the three pictures but not completely with success.

“I fully share the apology made by the DAP leadership over the incident,” he said Friday, adding that he had suggested during the convention for the Perak DAP leadership to tender a public apology over the incident.

He said in a statement that the incident was a lesson to all politicians to be particularly mindful about sensitivities of Malaysians in a plural society and the propensity of irresponsible politicians to turn a non-racial issue into a racial one.

“The DAP leadership has learnt from the mistake,” he said.

In a separate statement, DAP Perak chairman Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham claimed full responsibility for the incident but said national party leaders, including those from PKR and PAS, should not be blamed.

“DAP leaders including Lim Kit Siang, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and the leaders of PKR and PAS who were invited to the convention are not to be blamed.

“As the doormat was placed across the entrance to the convention hall, all persons entering the hall will have to step on the doormat,” he said.

He added that it was unjust for Umno leaders to single out Kit Siang as the latter did not place the doormat.