KUALA LUMPUR, May 3 — DAP veteran leader Lim Kit Siang today said he has been maintaining a low profile in the past year due to lies that sought to paint him as a "puppet-master” of political allies in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition.

Lim observed that internet and social media has led to an unprecedented level of lies and falsehoods, citing as an example a Whatsapp image that portrayed him as purportedly pulling the strings of puppets signifying PH component parties PKR, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) and Parti Amanah Negara.

He also cited another WhatsApp image that showed him as purportedly lording over the leaders of the three parties along with anti-Malay messages, but dismissed such claims to be untrue.

"These are monstrous lies and falsehoods— picturing me as the greatest threat to Malays and Muslims in the Malay and Muslim constituency, while among the non-Malays and non-Muslims, DAP and I are condemned as having sold out the rights and interests of non-Malays and non-Muslims,” the Iskandar Puteri MP said in a statement today.

"This is in fact one reason why I have kept a low publicity profile in the past year — the monstrous lies that I am the puppet master with the Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad and the federal government Cabinet as just my puppets and stooges.

"Malaysia seems to have entered a new phase of toxic and vicious politics of racial and religious hatred, lies and falsehoods which, if unchecked, will lead to unprecedented polarisation, division and disunity in plural Malaysia,” he added.

Lim went on to stress the need to build a "New Malaysia” in line with Malaysian voters’ historic decision almost a year ago on May 9 to change the government.

"This means the end of the politics of hate, lies and falsehoods which must be combated frontally as they have reached new levels of monstrosity and turpitude in the past 12 months.

"A New Malaysia can only succeed if all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region or socio-economic background, are able to develop their potential capabilities to the fullest — paving the way for Malaysia to compete with the rest of the world instead of competing with each other,” he said.

When pushing for a New Malaysia, Lim also outlined the need for a "new Sabah” via a proposed constitutional amendment to restore the promised rights and powers to Sabah and Sarawak in line with the Malaysia Agreement 1963.

Noting that the proposed law change did not happen due to a lack of two-thirds support in Parliament, Lim pitched for Sandakan voters to vote in PH candidate Vivian Wong in the by-election there next weekend to boost the number of PH MPs.

PH will have 139 MPs if Wong is voted in, with Lim saying that the coalition would then have to find nine more MPs to achieve two-thirds parliamentary majority to realise such proposed constitutional changes.

Acknowledging that PH has made mistakes over the past year and has room for improvement, Lim urged Sandakan voters to back the ruling coalition in the by-election which he described as a "first-year report card” for the PH government.