ANY “reasonably sane” listener of Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s recent speech where he named coalition leaders who may be investigated for corruption should BN lose in the upcoming polls, will know that he was joking.
After all, the UMNO president was only insinuating that selective or political persecution awaits BN should the Opposition emerge victorious in the upcoming 15th General Election (GE15), said MCA president Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong.
As such, Wee slammed Opposition leaders for inferring that leaders of BN component parties should be preemptively investigated for graft over Zahid’s opening speech at the MIC general assembly on Monday (Oct 10).
Apart from Wee, the BN leaders named by Zahid were UMNO deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamad Hassan, UMNO leader and caretaker defence minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, MIC president Tan Sri S.A. Vigneswaran and his deputy Datuk Seri M. Saravanan, who is also caretaker human resources minister.
“It (Zahid’s remarks) does not mean that any leaders mentioned in his speech were involved in graft of any kind,” the incumbent Ayer Hitam MP said in a statement.
However, if there is any “shred” of corruption or graft within the party’s ranks, Wee said the entire MCA leadership welcomes the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to conduct investigations to the full extent of the law.
“But do not use such baseless accusations for election campaigning without any evidence,” the caretaker transport minister said.
Wee also pointed to a statement he made in February saying no MCA leader was charged for corrupt practices following BN’s defeat in the 14th General Election (GE14) back in 2018.
“However, on Sept 3, 2018, scarcely any time before the ink dried on the GE14 voting slips, the Penang High Court freed (DAP chairman) Lim Guan Eng and his associate Phang Li Koon from their corruption charges,” he noted.
Wee added that during the time in the run-up to the GE15, talk, rumours and “character assassinations” will be attempted as can be expected.
“Spun for political mileage”
“Similarly, Zahid’s speech has been spun for the sake of political mileage by certain people.”
Meanwhile, MCA has slammed DAP for reportedly changing their tune with regard to dissolving the Penang state assembly to hold concurrent federal and state polls during GE15.
MCA Youth spokesperson Jacob Lee Yee Yuan noted that the Pakatan Harapan presidential council recently assured Malaysians that the three states under the coalition’s rule – Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Penang – will not dissolve their state assemblies simultaneously during GE15.
They said this five days before caretaker prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced the dissolution of Parliament on Monday (Oct 10), which paves the way for early polls.
However, less than a week later, Penang DAP has reportedly requested the party’s central leadership to review and revert their stance on holding state polls during GE15.
On the other hand, DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng has since openly called for national and state elections to be held concurrently, claiming that this was because Penangites told the party that concurrent elections would be preferable.
In a statement, Lee said these two instances speak to Pakatan’s strategy of “always being vague” in order to “placate anger from the people by shifting the blame away from themselves”.
After all, if the coalition was genuinely concerned about the floods, why hasn’t this been reflected in the flood mitigation plans in the states they currently hold, he asked.
“Moreover, Penang’s development itself has also contributed towards worsening flood conditions,” he alleged.
“Regardless, that is Pakatan’s way of governing their states and justifying their decisions,” he said. “BN, on the other hand, promotes the theme of stability and prosperity by ensuring the people’s welfare is secured through sustainable and comprehensive development, owing to our experience in governing the country.” – Oct 15, 2022
Main photo credit: The Star
