CM Lim fires another salvo at Hua Zong

Penang CM Lim Guan Eng has ventured a step further to denigrate the Malaysian Federation of Chinese Association (Hua Zong), linking them to MCA for accepting an invitation to participate in the party’s presidential council meetings.

Lim ( left ) said Hua Zong’s presence in the meetings, which are held on a regular basis, would clearly indicate that it was part of the Chinese party, and that there was no difference between them.

He urged Hua Zong to withdraw its declaration that the federation was “independent and neutral”.

“You should not accept the invitation. If you insist on doing so, do not announce you are independent and neutral,” he chided the federation, which had welcomed the invitation by new MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek.

 “This is not (being) independent and neutral. Let’s call a spade a spade,” insisted Lim, after issuing rewards to several students who excelled in the recent SPM and STPM examinations.

Yesterday, Lim criticised the association for being ‘confused' about its role in politics, saying its president Pheng Yin Huah was uncertain about "active participation in politics and partisan politics".

Pheng ( below ) was earlier reported as having brushed aside Lim’s comment and said the federation would still attend the meetings as observers.

On whether it was appropriate for the MCA to invite Hua Zong to attend their internal party meetings, Lim said it was up to the party to decide.

“Some members may feel that only elected or selected party members may attend the meetings but this is up to the MCA to decide, I do not know what they think,” he added.

Lim said that a presidential council meeting is an internal party matter, and in a coalition like Barisan Nasional, it meant two separate party meetings.

“(An) external (meeting) means one organisation against another,” he added.

“What would have happened here is that you allow Umno to attend your presidential meeting when you should be attending the BN supreme council meeting,” he directed his statement to MCA.

He clarified that in Pakatan Rakyat, members do not attend another party’s internal meetings.

“We do it party to party, not inter-party,” he said, adding that DAP members do not attend PKR’s supreme council meetings.

“They (Hua Zong) are demonstrating (that) they are no different ( from MCA) by attending the intra-party meetings,” he stressed.