LIM KIT SIANG SUDAH MENGAKU KALAH

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) _ Malaysia's longest-serving opposition leader on Thursday predicted a disastrous loss for the coalition which is challenging Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's 18-year rule.

Lim Kit Siang, leader of the Democratic ActionParty, said a decision by representatives of religiousminorities to back Mahathir was ``a major blow'' to the Alternative Front, the opposition coalition of which DAP is a member.

``It would probably be the single biggest cause forthe DAP to lose big,'' Lim told reporters four days before Monday's general vote.

Thursday's newspapers reported that the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Sikhism had decided to support Mahathir's National Front.
The council's general-secretary, R. Thiagaraja, was quoted as saying by the government-backed New Straits Times that the minorities would not back the opposition coalition because it included a Muslim fundamentalist group which favored imposing Islamic laws in Malaysia.

``This is a dangerous attempt which will break the unity of our people,'' Thiagaraja was quoted as saying.

Earlier this year, the predominantly ethnic Chinese DAP banded together with three other opposition groups, including the fundamentalist Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS).
The opposition coalition says that PAS agreed todrop its Islamic agenda and join a fight for democracy and human rights instead.

But the Southeast Asian nation's non-Muslim minorities fear that the Islamic party would seek to transform Malaysia into an Islamic state if thecoalition won a majority of the 193 parliamentary seats.

Muslim Malays comprise more than half of Malaysia's 22 million people. Ethnic Chinese, who are mostly Buddhists and Christians, make up 30 percent of the population. Ethnic Indians, mostly Hindus, comprise 10 percent of the population.

Lim, who has been opposition leader in Parliament since 1975, said the council's decision could cost himhis seat in a Chinese-dominated northern Malaysian district. He said it could cause his party to be ``wipedout from Parliament altogether.''

During Malaysia's last general vote in 1995, the DAP won eight seats. Its best performance in polls was in 1986, when it bagged 24 seats.






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