Wee: Don’t think, just act – but also answer the three questions which I asked him last Saturday and why MCA Ministers and MPs voted in support of the constituency redelineation proposals which are a betrayal of Najib’s 1Malaysia and Mahathir’s Bangsa Malaysia policies?

MCA Deputy President Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong said he is considering legal action against me for saying that he was acting according to a script from Barisan Nasional strategic communications director Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan on the Penang undersea tunnel scandal,

Why is Wee so sensitive, when he said he does not mind being called “catspaw” and “ninja assassin”?

Let me tell Wee, don’t think, just act but also answer at the MCA forum in Bagan tonight the three questions which I asked him last Saturday as well as why the MCA Ministers and MPs voted in support of the constituency redelineation proposals which was a betrayal of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia policy and Tun Mahathir Mohamad’s Bangsa Malaysia objective under Vision 2020?

The three questions I asked Wee at the DAP Elections Preparations Dinner in Lukut last Saturday were quite simple and straightforward, viz:

  1. Does he agree with Najib that the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report had cleared the Prime Minister Najib Razak of any wrongdoing in the 1MDB scandal – and if so, can he quote chapter and verse to prove that the PAC report had cleared Najib of any wrongdoing in the 1MDB scandal?
  2. If Wee is unable to agree with Najib that that PAC report had cleared the Prime Minister of any wrongdoing in the 1MDB scandal – will he and other MCA Ministers raise this issue in the Cabinet and ask the Prime Minister not to create the biggest “fake news” in Malaysia and to issue a statement of correction?
  3. Have Wee and the other two MCA Ministers read and understood the PAC Report on 1MDB, and will Wee stop playing the role of UMNO’s “ninja assassin” to character-assassinate the image, reputation and integrity of Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and DAP/PH Penang State Government to distract attention from Najib’s RM50 billion 1MDB scandal and the ignominy of Malaysia being regarded worldwide as a global kleptocracy!

For the past one week, Wee has maintained an inelegant silence on these three questions.

Just look at the publicity material for the MCA forum in Bagan tonight and we can see the prominent role of the so-called BN Strategic Communication Bureau.

I was in Parliament yesterday when the Director of the BN Strategic Communications and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan was in Chambers, and during the speech of the PPBM President and the MP for Pagoh, former Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhiddin Yassin on the Anti-Fake News Bill 2018, I interjected and referred to Abdul Rahman’s statement that “only an idiot doesn’t know who is Malaysian Official 1” in the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) kleptocratic litigation to forfeit US$1.7 billion 1MDB-linked assets.

In Abdul Rahman’s presence, I asked whether the Barsian Nasional Ministers and MPs were all “idiots” according to Abdul Rahman’s definition, but all I got were embarrassing stares from the BN Ministers and MPs in the House, including from Abdul Rahman Dahlan. After that episode, Abdul Rahman quickly left the House!

But there is another question which Wee have to answer in Bagan tonight – why the MCA Ministers and MPs had voted in support of the new constituency redelineation proposals in Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday, as it is a gross betrayal of Najib’s 1Malaysia and Mahathir’s Bangsa Malaysia objective under Vision 2020?

In Vision 2020, Mahathir envisioned having only one “Bangsa Malaysia” in 2020 with the people “ethnically and territorially integrated, living in harmony and full and fair partnership” while Najib’s 1Malaysia envisaged a Malaysian nation where every Malaysian regards himself or herself as Malaysian first and his or her race, religion, region or socio-economic status second.

Both visions and objectives have been smashed into smithereens by the Election Commission’s constituency redelineation proposals, which will ensure that the last general election before the expiry of the 30-year Vision 2020 - the present Parliament is expected to be dissolved in a mater of days - will centre on race as Malaysia today is more racial and polarized than ever.

It is not that MCA Ministers are blind, deaf and mute and cannot see the shape of things as envisaged by the Election Commission’s constituency redelineation proposals.

In fact, MCA opposed the Election Commission's redelineation proposals but when the matter was put to a vote in Parliament on Wednesday, MCA Ministers and MPs voted in full support of the new redelineation proposals.

It is on record that the MCA President Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai had said that the redelineation proposals by the Election Commission would give a bad impact as voters are divided based on race.

Of the 26 out of 40 parliamentary seats affected by the Election Commission's move, Petaling Jaya Utara for example, will see an increase of voters from 80,000 to 150,000 while the present 50 percent of Malay voters in Lumut will increase to 71 percent.

All this will lead to racial polarisation, which is against the Barisan Nasional government's policy of projecting Malaysia as a moderate country to promote inter-racial understanding through education and community activities.

The MCA even viewed the redelineation exercise as a “national crisis” as it will further divide the people by races and promote racial extremism.

The exercise will see the minority losing their political rights while the majority continues to dominate the voting process and determine the direction of the country.

Some Malay-majority areas will have more Malays and Chinese-majority constituencies more Chinese.

Another MCA leader warned that the redelineation proposals which demarcate constituencies according to racial lines do not augur well for the nation, and will lead to unhealthy politics and tear the nation apart in entrenching UMNO’s Malay supremacy policies..

But when it came to voting in the Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday, MCA Ministers and MPs meekly and servilely voted in full support of the Election Commission’s redelineation proposals? Why?

The same applies to the Gerakan Minister and MPs. May be Wee should invite the Gerakan President Datuk Mah Siew Keong to the MCA forum in Bagan tonight to explain why Gerakan voted in support of the Election Commission’s constituency redelineation proposals although they are a betrayal of Najib’s 1Malaysia and Mahathir’s Bangsa Malaysia objectives?

Lim Kit Siang DAP Parliamentary Leader & MP for Gelang Patah