Press Statement by Karpal Singh in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, 12^th June 2009:

OTK, should MCA leave BN?

MCA President, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat, has no business to call upon Lim Kit Siang to apologise to the Chinese community over the DAP appealing to the Chinese community to support PAS in the March 8th general elections last year.

Ong Tee Keat is making a very poor effort in trying to distract attention from the PKFZ debacle for which he must take full responsibility as Transport Minister.

In fact, the MCA has lost all credibility in the eyes of the Chinese community. This was, clearly, shown by the Chinese community’s rejection of the MCA in the last year general election.

In public survey put up by Ong Tee Keat in his blog, “Should MCA leave BN?”, 75.8% of those of who participated were in favour of the MCA pulling out of the BN with only 24.3% against.

Isn’t Ong Tee Keat morally obliged, in line with this survey, to pull out the MCA from the Barisan Nasional? Of course, this would be unexpected of Ong Tee Keat who, together with his colleagues, in the Cabinet are only interested in perpetuating their personal interests.

Time and again, the DAP has criticised PAS leaders whenever they made statements which were extreme in racial and religious content. In fact, the DAP has not spared even PAS President, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang, recently for his proposal for unity talks with UMNO. Kelantan Menteri Besar, Datuk Nik Aziz, in no uncertain terms, has publicly criticised his colleagues, including Hadi Awang, for pushing their agenda for unity talks with UMNO. Nik Aziz has publicly said that these leaders were out to destroy the party, saying it in a tone which was emotional and angry.

Hadi Awang owes an apology to both the DAP and PKR and Nik Aziz for having proposed unity talks with UMNO in clear breach of sincerity and bona fides in his dealings with the DAP and PKR.

It is only hoped in future that Hadi Awang thinks before he talks. Hadi Awang is fast becoming an embarrassment to the Pakatan Rakyat.

* Karpal Singh, DAP National Chairman & MP for Bukit Gelugor