Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said MCA had not guts to field a candidate in Bukit Gelugor, and yet it wants to ridicule DAP's choice for Teluk Intan.

 

Liow was quoted in Bernama yesterday saying that DAP's candidate Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud was parachuted in due to the party's factionalism in Perak.

 

Lim pointed out Liow's ( left ) own party comrades, including former MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek, had urged his successor to ‘man up’ and not give up the fight for Bukit Gelugor.

 

"Such accusations from MCA (that we field Dyana due to factionalism in DAP) show the kind of standards MCA has," Lim said at a press conference at the state legislative assembly.

 

"What is MCA's reason then for not contesting Bukit Gelugor by-election? Does this mean they have bigger problems in Penang?" he mocked.

 

"Even his comrades are calling him a coward. It's not coming from us but from his own MCA leaders, maybe he has to explain that," Lim added.

 

Power struggle

Yesterday, Liow had said that DAP fielded Dyana because it could not find a local candidate in Teluk Intan.

 

He had claimed that the move was also seen as resolving the state division's internal power struggle between leaders scrambling to contest the seat.

 

Lim said DAP had many choices but decided on Dyana as the party wanted to give young women opportunities to participate in politics.

 

"We also fielded Dyana to break the mindset that a person will only help his or her community of the same race. We want Malays to be able to help the Chinese and vice-versa," he added.

MCA decided not to contest the Bukit Gelugor by-election, saying the party had wanted to focus on preventing PAS from tabling a Private Members Bill on hudud in Kelantan.

 

However, a day before the Bukit Gelugor's nomination day on May 12, PAS withdrew its plan to table the motion in Parliament on June 9, saying the party will discuss the matter with a bi-partisan technical committee set up by the federal government.

 

MCA took almost a week to arrive at the decision ‎to pull out of the by-election that goes to polls on May 25, Sunday, fuelling speculation that the party could not find a suitable candidate.

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