KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 16 — DAP veteran Tan Sri Lim Kit Siang has questioned former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s rationale in claiming Umno is subservient to DAP.

He also asked Muhyiddin to state if he felt Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was subservient to DAP during his tenure as prime minister.

Lim challenged Muhyiddin to clarify his attempt to link the Sheraton Move with the downfall of Dr Mahathir’s second government due to the latter’s apparent subservience to DAP.

"To use the vocabulary of PAS president, Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang, was Dr Mahathir a DAP Gurkha in the 22 months he was prime minister of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government from May 2018 until February 2020 and had to be toppled by the Sheraton Move political conspiracy?” Lim said in a statement today.

Lim also reflected on a clandestine meeting with Muhyiddin in July 2016, where the latter purportedly sought DAP support to become the seventh prime minister of Malaysia.

"Why did Muhyiddin meet me in a Kuala Lumpur hotel in cloak-and-dagger circumstances in July 2016 and ask me for DAP support for him to be the seventh Prime Minister of Malaysia?

"Did I become anti-Malay, anti-Islam, anti-Royalty, communist and spreading Islamophobia when I declined to support him as the seventh prime minister of Malaysia as the DAP was committed to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the prime minister candidate?

"Would DAP be fully acceptable and nobody would be ‘dominant’ and nobody would be ‘subservient’ if I had supported him as the seventh prime minister of Malaysia in 2016?” he asked.

Lim also highlighted Dr Mahathir’s appointment as an adviser to Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah, and Perlis, considering the allegations of subservience to DAP.

Dr Mahathir is currently the unofficial adviser to the four PAS-governed states — dubbed as the "State-Government 4” (SG4) — to help attract foreign investment.

Yesterday, Muhyiddin, who is Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia president, said due to the shift in the political landscape, a non-Malay could be prime minister in the future due to the influence of DAP.

The former PM further claimed that this was exacerbated by the constitutional amendment against political defections, which he said would bind elected lawmakers to any decision of their party.

Bersatu’s Youth chief Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal then challenged Anwar to introduce an amendment to the Federal Constitution to ensure that only Malays can become the prime minister.

He argued that the approach would help instil confidence among the Malays towards the government, especially in light of recent remarks by Lim that the Federal Constitution does not prohibit a non-Malay from becoming the prime minister.

Wan Ahmad was slammed for this by Sarawak Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah who said Malaysia could only progress and gain international respect if leaders abandon ethnocentric perspectives.

Meanwhile, Anwar when asked to address these claims by Muhyiddin said the Opposition bloc were playing up racial sentiments in order to raise tensions among the Malays.

He implored them to further understand the Federal Constitution before making controversial suggestions about whether Malaysia should have a prime minister of a certain race.