PETALING JAYA: MCA President Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong would have lost his deposit in the Ayer Hitam parliamentary seat in the 14th General Election, under PAS party president Hadi Awang’s dictum that Muslims must vote for Muslim candidates, Lim Kit Siang (pix) said today.
The DAP adviser asked if Wee realised this yesterday when he defended the political co-operation between the BN component parties and PAS as a common feature of Malaysian politics.
“In the Ayer Hitam parliamentary constituency in the 14th General Election, Wee won 17,076 votes, beating the Pakatan Harapan candidate Liew Chin Tong who won 16,773 votes, with a sliver-thin majority of 303 votes,” Lim said in a statement.
The third candidate from PAS, Mardi Marwan, received 4,975 votes.
“If Muslims only vote for Muslim candidates, as is now Hadi’s stand, claiming that a corrupt and decadent Muslim leader is any time better than a clean and honest non-Muslim leader, Wee would not get any Muslim vote in Ayer Hitam parliamentary constituency and would even have lost his deposit,” said Lim, who is the MP for Iskandar Puteri.
“Wee is a poor student of history as DAP had never worked with a PAS leadership which advocated such a toxic and vicious brand of politics, aimed at sowing suspicion, distrust and hatred among races and religions – which is not building a nation but destroying the very social fabric in Malaysia.
“This was not the PAS which the DAP worked with when we formed the Barisan Alternative in 1999-2001 and Pakatan Rakyat from 2008-2015.”
Lim said DAP would work with a political Islamic party that recognises Malaysia as a plural society and believes that Malaysia’s greatness comes from the leveraging of the assets and best qualities from its diverse races, religions, languages and civilisations.
“Maybe Wee and MCA leaders can never understand that sustainable politics must be based on principles, not on sheer opportunism,” he said.
“Wee’s defence of the political co-operation between BN component parties and PAS, wherther in recent Cameron Highlands parliamentary by-election or the forthcoming Seminyih Selangor state assembly by-election, highlights the political hypocrisy of MCA leaders.
“Wee made great play before the MCA General Assembly that BN is outdated and should be dissolved.
“But after the MCA General Assembly, Wee is behaving like a duck taking to water – which shows that he is very comfortable playing the subservient role in the BN.”
