(Petaling Jaya, Wednesday): DAP urges Malaysians to reject the politics of deceit and deception practiced by MCA President Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting, MIC Secretary-General Datuk S. Sothinathan and Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Mohd Khir Toyo. Is Malaysian politics so bereft of principles and idealism that these BN leaders can become “heroes” for their policy failures and lies.

Ong Ka Ting is played up as a “hero” for successfully appealing to the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to grant scholarships to top SPM scholars when this a policy failure. The Malaysian government should be ashamed that top scholars, who were honoured with a dinner with the Prime Minister, were rejected government scholarships. Which country in the world has its top scholars crying in public to appeal for reconsideration of scholarships?

Instead of asking for a complete overhaul of the scholarship procedures and the removal of the Public Services Department for causing so much injustice and suffering, nothing has changed. The problem of top scholars not getting scholarships is becoming an annual affair. Why should scholarships not be granted automatically to top scholars? MCA should be condemned for supporting such policy failures and not get cheap publicity getting scholarship for top scholars who should have got it in the first place.

Deputy Minister for Human Resources Datuk S. Sothinathan is also another “hero” after being suspended for 3 months for questioning the truth of government’s decision to withdraw medical degrees from Crimea State Medical University(CSMU) in Ukraine. Such sudden de-recognition has affected Malaysian students, the majority of them Indians, studying in CSMU.

If Datuk Sothinanthan disagrees with the govenrment’s policy then he should prove it by resigning. Getting suspended for 3 months and then returning as Deputy Minister means that Datuk Sothinathan still supports the government’s de-recognition of CSMU. Isn’t it odd and wrong that Datuk Sothinathan becomes a hero without resolving the problem faced by CSMU students– that CSMU is still not recognized by the government? He may have improved his chances as the next President of MIC but what about the prospects of CSMU students.

Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Mohd Khir Toyo false claims that Selangor is already a developed state and more developed than Malaysia is disgraceful. Not only Mohd Khir Toyo, but Selangor has lost credibility and integrity for spreading such lies that were immediately rejected by the National Productivity Corporation Deputy Director-General Dr Ab Wahab Muhamad and Senior Economist of the IMD World Competitiveness Centre Suzanne Rosselet-McCauley.

To claim that Selangor is a fully developed state when it is not so and falsely claim that it is second only to Finland on its educational system throughout the world is irresponsible. Selangor has become the international laughing-stock and its leader exposed as a liar. Selangor may only be developed in terms of corruption, financial malpractices and abuse of power. If Datuk Mohd Khir Toyo has any honour and dignity he should immediately resign for such irresponsible lies.

The time has come to punish and stop such politics of self-deception and deceit. How can the people and foreign investors have confidence in Malaysia if our leaders are not reliable and cannot be trusted? Policy failures must be corrected at its source and the people must be brave to demand real reforms that lead to the institutionalization of democracy, transparency and accountability.

(29/06/2005)