MCA attack on Anwar draws PKR's ire

The Permatang Pauh by-election is shaping up to be what many have been anticipating - an all-out, no-holds-barred dogfight between main contestants Barisan Nasional and PKR.

MCA Youth chief Liow Tiong Lai on Sunday fired an early salvo for the ruling BN coalition with a barrage of scathing personal attacks against opposition icon Anwar Ibrahim.

In Georgetown for a BN strategy meeting, Liow called the PKR de facto leader a "double faced and split-tongued" politician.

He also lambasted Anwar for stirring up racial sentiments and jeopardising the multi-racial harmony he said took the BN more than 50 years to build up.

"He would tell something to the Malays and another to the Chinese because he has two faces and split tongues," Liow, who is also health minister, told reporters.

Stung by the comments, PKR vice-president Dr Lee Boon Chye lashed back, counter-accusing Liow of 'slanderous falsehoods'.

He also took Liow to task for his own ambiguous stands on corruption, oppressive security laws, fuel price hike and the New Economic Policy.

"Obviously, Liow has not been following Anwar's electoral campaigns and speeches across the country," said Lee, who is also Gopeng Member of Parliament, after chairing a high-powered PKR by-election meeting in Seberang Jaya.

"Anwar has consistently said that all Malaysians would be treated equally on religious freedom, justice, business and education opportunities," he added. "What is Liow's stand on all these? He has never revealed it in parliament."

'Two-faced politician'

Liow, also the Penang MCA liaison committee chief, had criticised Anwar for calling BN a coalition that lived and thrived on racial politics "when he (Anwar) was the one guilty of it."

"PKR and Anwar were the ones invoking racial politics and splitting Malaysians on communal lines to garner votes all this while," said Liow, adding that BN had always worked for the interests, rights and benefits of all Malaysians based on multi-racial concepts.

PKR Penang Committee Member Lim Boo Chang, who was at the MCA meeting, joined in the fray.

A former MCA and Gerakan leader, Lim accused the MCA leader of carrying out a character assassination campaign.

Lim said Malaysians had for the first time put aside their racial differences in the March general elections and voted in candidates from the Pakatan Rakyat because "they believe the Anwar-led coalition could deliver equality, freedom and justice to all."

He also called on Liow to refresh his memory that it was the Anwar coalition that had the courage to unveil the New Malaysian Economic Agenda in the Malay-dominated Kampung Baru area in the Klang Valley.

By contrast, MCA presidential candidate Ong Tee Keat's recent call for his own party to transform into a multi-racial entity was instantly shot down by members, re-affirming the MCA's long-standing racial political stance, Lim added.

"Thus Liow does not have any public standing to talk about multi-racial politics when he is from a mono-racial party," he said.

The Permatang Pauh constituency is widely regarded as an Anwar stronghold. The by-election is slated for Aug 26 after PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who is also Anwar's wife, vacated the seat to pave the way for Anwar to make his parliamentary comeback.