MP SPEAKS | Yesterday, I asked three questions:

1) Why PAS wants to help the MCA in the Balakong by-election;

2) Why is MCA getting help from Umno leaders who are continuing with their extreme and irresponsible politics of race, religion, hate, fear and lies declaring that after GE14, the Malays have lost political power, that the DAP is the enemy of the Malays and Islam and that DAP wanted to abolish the Malay sultans and set up a republic, and;

3) Why is MCA so desperate that it has to seek help from the extremist and opportunistic Umno/PAS unholy alliance to avoid losing deposit in the Balakong by-election?

All the answers to these three questions were answered yesterday evening.

In the Seri Setia by-election campaigning yesterday, Umno and PAS finally got in bed together, with both parties campaigning jointly for the PAS candidate.

Umno President Ahmad Zahid Hamidi spoke at the PAS by-election ceramah and even pledged to personally attend the PAS muktamar in Kuala Terengganu next week.

In fact, Zahid said he would ask the entire top Umno leadership to attend the PAS muktamar with him – a special treatment which had been denied to MCA as the Umno leadership never attended MCA's general assemblies in MCA's history, although MCA boasted that it was the second biggest party in the 13-party BN in the past decades.

In reciprocation for MCA’s blessing for the Umno/PAS unholy union, PAS leaders had been actively campaigning for MCA in the Balakong by-election on the personal directive of PAS President, Abdul Hadi Awang.

Zahid also appeared in the MCA by-election campaign in Balakong in his capacity as BN chairperson and appealed for a “moral victory” in the Balakong by-election, whether the MCA candidate wins or loses.

It is now clear that Umno and PAS are making use of MCA to “borrow a corpse to resurrect the soul” (借尸还魂) to build the new MCA/Umno/PAS unholy alliance to plot the downfall of Pakatan Harapan government before the 15th general election in 2023.

This has given Balakong and Seri Setia by-elections tomorrow a national importance over and above their local objective to elect the state assembly representative for the area – whether the voters of Balakong and Seri Setia wants to give the MCA/Umno/PAS a “moral victory” in their unholy alliance in-the-making.

It is very significant that neither in the Balakong nor Seri Setia 21-day by-election campaigns, the MCA/Umno/PAS alliance had not said a word of condemnation or repudiation of the corruption and abuses of power of the Najib Abdul Razak government, in particular the international 1MDB corruption and money-laundering scandal which had given Malaysia the infamy, ignominy and iniquity of a global kleptocracy.

How then can they reform to become a constructive and honest opposition, to transform their “unholy alliance” into a “holy alliance”, and to provide the necessary check-and-balance for democracy to thrive in Malaysia, when they still represent the corruption, abuses of power and injustices of the Najib era?

If the MCA candidate in Balakong and the PAS candidate in Seri Setia lose their deposits in the by-elections tomorrow, it will be the first and historic verdict that the people of Malaysia do not want an unprincipled, opportunistic and irresponsible MCA/Umno/PAS alliance to muddy the waters in the difficult task of building a New Malaysia, free from the corruption, abuses of power and injustices of the Najib regime which was toppled peacefully and democratically in GE14, some four months ago on May 9, 2018.

LIM KIT SIANG is the MP for Iskandar Puteri.

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