Lim Kit Siang has refuted the claim of a former top cop that communists had a hand in helping the opposition win seats in the 1969general election, stating that the opposite was in fact true.

 While not denying that communists had attempted to infiltrate DAP at the time, Lim said Yuen Yuet Leng (right) was “way off the mark” in stating that they helped the opposition make inroads into areas held by the Alliance government.In his blog posting today, the DAP veteran parliamentarian said the communists had wanted the people to boycott the election and for the opposition to “fare badly”.”Yuen’s claim that the communists helped the opposition to win seats in the 1969 general election is news to me, running counter to what actually happened in the run-up to the 1969 general election and (written in) studies, whether books or articles, by scholars…”The facts were the exact opposite, as the communists were calling for a boycott of the 1969 general election and the opposition parties which participated in the 1969 general election were condemned by the communists as ‘stooges’ and ‘puppets’ of the Alliance for going against their call to the people to reject the ballot box and democratic process and to take to street protestsand extra-constitutional struggle,” Lim wrote.

He then asked what “substantial number of seats” were won by the opposition coalition in 1969 – that comprised DAP. Gerakan, PPP and PAS – as a result of the “communist assistance”.

English daily theSun had, on Monday, quoted Yuen as stating that the communists had infiltrated many political parties, and “that is what led to the opposition winning (in the 1969 general election)”.