Kedah Gerakan Youth has advised the party's women's wing, which recently urged him to retract a public statement on Subang Jaya assemblyperson Hannah Yeoh's pregnancy, not to give too much ear to Pakatan Rakyat.

Calling it Pakatan's "desperate propaganda", its chief Tan Keng Liang  said Gerakan Wanita should read his recent clarification on the matter, where he denied ever questioning the ability of pregnant women to be state assemblypersons.

NONE On whether he would retract his comment as suggested by the wing's head Ng Siew Lai ( left ), Tan merely said: "Why would I retract my suggestion to a friend to consider two women as candidates for Subang Jaya?"

Tan was responding to Gerakan Wanita which had called on him yesterday to withdraw his inappropriate Internet posting on Yeoh's pregnancy.

Ng stressed that Tan's remark was unintended and that it was distorted and exaggerated by certain quarters for political gain.

In rising to Tan' s defence, she said that it was a private discussion between him and his friends over the Internet.

Despite Tan's clarification, Ng still felt that if Yeoh or women in Malaysia felt offended, Gerakan Wanita expected her party counterpart to publicly pull back his comment.

Opposition bad boys at it again

Tan, who actively issues press statements on a variety of issues, had come under heavy fire from several Pakatan leaders and netizens after his controversial remark on Sunday.

In a statement today, Tan accused Pakatan of turning the term "maternity leave" into a sensitive matter .

Tan said his understanding was that the Pakatan had exploited the issue in an attempt to salvage themselves from their current political predicament.

He added that maternity leave should not be seen as a weakness in any person, adding that someone going on such leave should not be misinterpreted as being totally unfit to be a state representative.

"I hope that political leaders, in particular those from the Pakatan, learn from this so as to be more open minded in future and not misinterpret the conversation of any person in the country while policing cyberspace for political gain ," he added.

NONE Tan then clarified that during a twitter conversation, he had asked a voter in the constituency if he would choose MCA Beliawanis treasurer Jessica Lai or incumbent Hannah Yeoh ( right ), who will be on maternity leave soon, for the post.

When Yeoh asked him what he meant by "maternity leave", Tan clarified that it merely meant that the former would not be able to provide services to her constituents during her leave, which she was entitled to.

"Anyway, congratulations in welcoming your baby," he had tweeted in reply to Yeoh.

"I also immediately clarified to her that ‘ I never said an elected representative cannot be pregnant or take maternity leave," he added.

Tan also flatly denied that he had ever said that he was against pregnant women becoming state assemblypersons in any conversation.

He added that he had also not urged anyone to vote against pregnant women.

On the contrary, Tan said he had presented his friend a choice of two candidates for Subang Jaya, one being pregnant.

"How could I then be against pregnant woman?" he asked.

"Pakatan chose not to highlight this in their propoganda against me and the fact that the two persons I mentioned were women."