DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang has criticised Umno supreme council member Abdul Rahman Dahlan for defending Lester Melanyi's "exposé" on Sarawak Report despite credibility issues, stating that even school children would have known better.
"If the messenger is disreputable and a mercenary, what is the credibility of his message?
"School children would be able to give proper answer to this question which seems to be beyond Abdul Rahman’s mental and moral capabilities.
"No wonder former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad keeps lamenting the low-standard of present-day cabinet ministers whom he and his former finance minister Daim Zainuddin, have dismissed as 'half-past six' or 'deadwood' ministers," he said in a statement today.
Lim said this in reference to Abdul Rahman's press conference on Wednesday, based on a video confession by Lester who claimed to be a writer for Sarawak Report .
PRS man doesn't trust Lester
Abdul Rahman had revealed the matter in his capacity as BN strategic communications director.
Following this, a senior Sarawak BN leader had cast doubt on Lester's claim, adding that the latter's credibility was in question .
"I'm quite surprised. If Abdul Rahman had asked me, I would not have advised him to use him (Lester).
"I would tell him not to listen too much and not to pin too much on his (Lester) claims," said Parti Rakyat Sarawak president James Masing.
However, Abdul Rahman today said his exposé was valid, stating that regardless of Lester's credibility, the focus should be on the message and not the messenger.
Egg in face
Lim said Abdul Rahman's insistence showed he had no qualms "parleying with the dregs of society and scums of the earth to serve his political ends".
"Abdul Rahman's dismissal of senior Sarawak minister James Masing's criticism over his use of the 'confession' of a disgraced former Sarawak journalist, whose credibility was questionable, speaks volumes about the minister's political and moral standards.
"The wonder of it all is that he is blissfully unaware that he has egg all over his face - a special quality of Umno/BN Ministers and leaders," said Lim.
Sarawak Report editor-in-chief Clare Rewcastle Brown had denied that Lester ever worked for the news portal, adding that he was only hired for a few months for Radio Free Sarawak in 2011.
Lester was in 2006 forced to resign from Sarawak Tribune for allowing the publication of caricatures featuring Prophet Mohamad.
The daily, which existed since 1945, was suspended indefinitely.
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