Keng Yaik Wants Tsu Koon To Continue To Lead Gerakan

PUTRAJAYA, March 10 (Bernama) -- Gerakan Advisor Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik has refused to accept acting party president Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon's offer to step down following the party's defeat in this general election.

"I told him to shut up and carry on," he told reporters on his last day as the Minister of Energy, Water and Telecommunications at his ministry, here.

Asked whether he has conveyed the message to Koh, Dr Lim said: "I had breakfast with him today. I had lunch with him. Swim with him. The only thing I didn't do was sleep with him. That is reserved for my wife," he said.

Dr Lim said the party needed Koh to lead Gerakan during this hard time after losing Penang and winning only two parliamentary and four state seats in the polls on Saturday.

Dr Lim said there was no pressure put on Koh to step down and the latter's desire to do so came from "the voice of a gentleman which is not politically right and wrong."

Dr Lim said he would continue his role as advisor in helping to hold the party together and determine new measures to be introduced so that the party would pull through this hard time.

These included putting younger and more aggressive leaders at all levels, playing a responsible and constructive opposition role in opposition-controlled states and setting up the party's blog to counter allegations made against the party, he said.

"It is not the end of the day. What goes up must come down and what goes down must come up," he said.

Asked on the Gerakan's quota for representation in the federal government comprising a minister, two deputy ministers and a parliamentary secretary, he said: "We are not beggars. Wouldn't it be shameful with just two Members of Parliament, you want to talk about quota," he said.

On his parting words, Keng Yaik, who served as a minister for 22 years, said he was prepared to leave the office as he had announced his intention two years ago, and relinquished his post as Gerakan president last year.

"It's a little sad," he said.

Keng Yaik said his retirement plans included spending time with his grandchildren and concentrating on his role as Chairman of Wawasan Open University, Malaysia's first private non-profit tertiary institution dedicated to working adults.

"Bye-bye. After this you won't get water from me anymore," he said in jest prompting a reporter to show him an umbrella.

Keng Yaik is widely known among the media fraternity for his saliva-spill speech.

-- BERNAMA