By Lim Guan Eng
MCA new President Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai should learn from his predecessor Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek’s example in admitting his personal defects, instead of using twisted logic and lies to cover up MCA’s failings to promote Chinese education or protect fundamental civil and political liberties. Blaming Parliamentary Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for causing Operasi Lallang in 1987, where 116 political leaders and NGOs were detained without trial under the Internal Security Act(ISA), defies logic and denies the truth when it is not Anwar, but Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who was the Home Minister that signed the detention orders.
I can vouch that Anwar was not involved because I was amongst those detained, being the first to be arrested on 27 October 1987 and the last to be released on April 19 1989. My detention order, like those for DAP leaders such as Karpal Singh and Lim Kit Siang, was signed by Tun Dr Mahathir.Amongst the reasons for my detention without trial under the ISA was that I had defended Chinese education.
I have faith with Anwar because Anwar had come to terms with the corruption and the wrongs committed by UMNO and BN when he was an UMNO leader. Even though he personally never committed the corrupt acts, he never denied that he was guilty by association. He had explained many times that he thought he could change UMNO and BN from within but when he failed, he finally broke with Tun Dr Mahathir and had to suffer selective prosecution and relentless persecution, leading to him being imprisoned for 6 years and being beaten up black and blue.
I will never forget that before I was imprisoned for a second time, this time as a common criminal in Kajang Prison in 1998, Anwar had stood up for me and spoke on my behalf publicly when he was still Deputy Prime Minister. Anwar opposed the denial of justice given to me even when he was still Deputy Prime Minister. I was convicted for defending an underaged Malay girl who was detained even though she was raped, whilst her rapists escaped unpunished.
No BN leader and not even one single MCA leader had stood up for me or for justice then? Liow Tiong Lai – where were you in 1987 and 1998? Clearly, it is not Anwar Ibrahim that poses a threat to fundamental human rights but an unprincipled and spineless MCA that is a traitor to their cause and a slave to racists and religious extremists.
There is no doubt that recent events have proven MCA as a traitor to their cause and a slave to racists and religious extremists when MCA condemns such violent actions only in Chinese newspapers but not in Malay newspapers. There was no demand by MCA that UMNO directs their Tanjung UMNO leaders to withdraw and apologise for their demand that pork be banned from being openly sold in 95% non-Malay areas in Penang. If pork is to be banned from being openly sold in 95% non-Malay areas, then such a ban must be imposed on the whole of Penang!
MCA had also chosen to attack DAP Seputih MP Teresa Kok’s harmless video clip and sided with the racists and extremists playing games to distract attention from BN’s price hikes in sugar, petrol, power tariffs and motor insurance premiums.
And where is MCA’s principled stand when they can renege on their own promises and be a traitor to their cause of not accepting Cabinet positions if MCA performed worse in the 2013 general elections? When the people including MCA members, rejected MCA in the last general elections, MCA regretted making the rejection of government posts their cause.
By calling for a special Extraordinary General Meeting next Sunday to allow MCA leaders to accept government posts, MCA has proven once again that it only makes promises to break them. What moral right and principled justification has MCA to criticise Anwar when for MCA leaders, nothing is more important than the perks and privileges of Ministerial office?
