Environmental pressure group Himpunan Hijau will organise a forum during the upcoming Kajang by-election campaign period for candidates from both BN and Pakatan Rakyat to talk about their green policies.

Wong Tack, the chairperson of the group, announced that the session, dubbed ‘Green Public Forum’, will be held tomorrow night after the nomination process was completed so as to kick-start the by-election campaign.

“This is the first event of the Kajang by-election, and we are very honoured to organise it,” said Wong Tack in a press conference today.

The forum will be held at 8pm tomorrow at the community hall in Kampung Sungai Chua. Pakatan’s proposed candidate Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and BN’s proposed candidate Chew Mei Fun have been invited to explain their green policies to the local residents.

“Politics, and social and economic issues of society are interconnected with the environment, so political leaders and decision-makers must take environmental issues seriously,” Wong Tack added.

Himpunan Hijau had also invited PKR’s Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh and MCA president Liow Tiong Lai to become the partners of Wan Azizah and Chew respectively.

According to Wong Tack, Wan Azizah and Fuziah had agreed to attend the event.

However, he said that Chew and Liow had yet to reply, despite an invitation email being issued three days ago and an SMS reminder sent to them yesterday.

“I hope that they won’t disappoint the people,” he said, adding that the people of Kajang will determine who are the winners of the forum.

Wong said that the forum moderator is Engage chairperson Thomas Fann, stressing that it will be a “very neutral” platform.

When asked what if MCA ultimately failed to respond on this event, Fann said that the programme will go on nevertheless.

Wong Tack also said that Himpunan Hijau will campaign for Pakatan Rakyat in this by-election.

MCA and Liow taken to task

He had taken MCA and Liow to task over the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant in Gebeng, Pahang, accusing the latter of “always speaking for Lynas”.

Wong Tack, who contested under DAP ticket against Liow during the 13th general election in Bentong, was unhappy with the statement by Liow who claimed that waste from the plant will be sent out of the country, but the fact that the wastes are still being kept inside the plant.

He also accused Liow, who was on the MCA monitoring committee on the Lynas rare earth processing plant, of failing to fulfil his tasks.

As Liow had been elected as the new chief of the Chinese-based party, Wong Tack once again urged MCA to attend the event to explain its stand over certain environmental issues to the people.