Chua Soi Lek - I do not like or hate him. I pity him

Former MCA President Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek can deny until the cows come home and allege that I had twisted his words in claiming that he had likened UMNO-MCA relationship to father-and-son relationship but just ask the Malaysian reading public what conclusions they would draw from Chua’s earlier and subsequent statements.

May be Chua had not expected the intensity of the fallout of his “when your father gives you money, will you ask your dad where the money comes from” statement, but it shows that there are things for even an old hand in politics to learn.

Chua is not stupid or dense, although he is prepared to sound stupid or dense if this will help his cause.

Let me say this of Chua Soi Lek – I do not like him or hate him. I pity him. And I wish him good luck in his “rise from the political ashes”!

I have therefore nothing more to say about him or what he had said.

But what intrigued me is that not a single contestant for office in the MCA party elections on Nov. 5 had dared to address what I had described as the most important question facing MCA – not whether MCA is going to leave Barisan Nasional but whether MCA dare to denounce former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the international 1MDB corruption and money-laundering scandal which brought Malaysia to such depths as to be regarded worldwide as a global kleptocracy.

Further, the thunderous silence on whether all Barisan Nasional parties including MCA, should return all the illicit 1MDB funds which they had improperly received to public coffers and to vow support to the Pakatan Harapan Government to transform Malaysia from global kleptocracy to a model democracy!

MCA’s leaving BN would not cleanse the MCA of having aided and abetted Najib in the 1MDB corruption and money-laundering scandal, which made Malaysia a laughing stock of the world.

Next month, on Nov. 9, there is going to be world premier in London of a 84-minute film entitled “The Kleptocrats”, and the blurb for the film is as follows:

“WORLD PREMIERE In one of the world’s biggest financial crimes, 3.5 billion dollars were stolen from a Malaysian government fund. Investigative reporters from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Hollywood Reporter follow the money as it travels across the globe, financing everything from luxury real estate and decadent parties to Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street. Capturing white-collar crime at its greedy best, The Kleptocrats is tale of embezzlement, scams and greed run amok.”

What a terrible shame for Malaysia!

Is every MCA contestant prepared to campaign on the stand that MCA must denounce and repudiate Najib and the 1MDB scandal, and pledge to return every dirty sen they received, whether directly or indirectly, from 1MDB funds – and to ask UMNO and all present and former Barisan Nasional parties to do the same?

Will MCA Deputy President, Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong speak on this issue in Parliament?

Lim Kit Siang MP for Iskandar Puteri