I want to advise the MCA president, Liow Tiong Lai, not to bargain for more MCA posts in the impending cabinet reshuffle by telling blatant lies without batting an eyelid about DAP leaders.

MCA has been boasting that it would be getting three ministerial and five deputy ministerial posts in a cabinet reshuffle, but there are speculations that MCA may finally be allotted with a miserable allocation of one ministerial and two deputy ministerial posts.

Liow should not try to up the ante hoping to get better ministerial and deputy ministerial allocations for the MCA  from Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak by making baseless attacks on  DAP  leaders through lies and falsehoods.

For instance, Liow yesterday alleged that when I met the Mursyidul Am (PAS spiritual leader) Nik Aziz Abdul Nik Mat during a courtesy call on him in Kota Bhru last Thursday together with the DAP Teluk Intan parliamentary by-election candidate Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud, I was “so weak and cowardly” as I dared not mention that the hudud issue was one of the reasons for the DAP’s defeat in the by-election. (Refer to Sin Chew Daily article)

I really pity the MCA president that he had to descend to such a depth of gutter politics to raise his importance with the Umno leaders, hoping to get a better deal for MCA in the impending cabinet reshuffle.

I have said that in my meeting with Nik Aziz, I clarified that the DAP MP for Puchong and Selangor deputy chairperson Gobind Singh Deo had been misreported as blaming PAS leaders and hudud for the DAP’s loss in the Teluk Intan by-election.

Gobind had said, which I agreed, that hudud was one of the causes for the Teluk Intan result.

End gutter politics

It is time MCA and Umno end their gutter politics, which are not only unethical, dishonest but contradict each other.

MCA leaders for instance accuse DAP leaders of being afraid of PAS leaders and therefore betray Chinese and non-Muslim rights to PAS leaders, while Umno leaders at the same time make the accusation against PAS leaders of being afraid of DAP leaders and therefore betraying Malay and Muslim rights to DAP leaders.

In the old days when most Malaysians read only one-language newspapers, it was possible for such lies and falsehoods to be spread before they are discovered and harm done although they contradict each other.

Nowadays when Malaysians can easily read and get access to all language newspapers, it is possible to immediately expose MCA lies that DAP betraya Chinese and non-Muslim rights to PAS in Chinese media when on the same day Malay media print Umno lies that PAS betrays Malay and Muslim rights to DAP.

DAP leaders are not afraid of PAS leaders, and neither are PAS leaders afraid of DAP leaders, preventing us from speaking our minds at Pakatan Rakyat meetings.

Pakatan Rakyat is not Barisan Nasional where Umno hegemony dominates all BN proceedings – and MCA and Umno leaders should not flatter themselves to think that they are the role models for DAP and PAS leaders!

Liow only betrays his lowly politics in resorting to such blatant lies and falsehoods to prop up his political position.

DAP clear from the start

DAP has right from the beginning made clear our position that the implementation of hudud is not part of the Pakatan Rakyat common policy programme, as it is against the fundamental Malaysian constitutional position of Malaysia as a secular democratic state, as well as not consonant with a plural society of diverse races, religions and cultures like Malaysia.

DAP has never hidden the fact, whether to Pakatan partners PAS and PKR, and to the Malaysian public at large, that the DAP is opposed to any proposal to move a Private Member’s Bill in Parliament for the implementation of hudud, whether it is from PAS or Umno.

MCA on the other hand is quite different – only daring to oppose hudud if proposed by PAS but until the recent controversy over the Selangor Umno’s motion on hudud implemention in the Selangor state assembly next week, dared not take a clear public stand if the hudud proposal came from Umno.

Now MCA claims that it will also oppose hudud implementation even if the proposal came from Umno.

Is MCA to be believed?

Why then the thunderous silence of MCA when

- Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Jamil Khir Baharom said in Parliament on March 27 that the federal government was ready to work with the PAS Kelantan state government to implement the hudud law in Kelantan; and

- Prime Minister Najib said in Alor Setar on April 24 that the Barisan Nasional federal government had never rejected hudud?

LIM KIT SIANG is the MP for Gelang Patah and DAP parliamentary leader.