Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan should admit that he has failed miserably to live up to expectations of a Minister that says what he means and means what he says by chickening out of his own debate challenge to me. Rahman now claims that he did not go ahead with his plan to debate with me because he did not want to give the wrong signals to the people that as a Minister he could ignore the advice of the authorities, such as Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar.
Rahman must remember that he had challenged me to a debate on 6 April 2016. I had immediately accepted his challenge on 7 April but instead of proceeding with the debate, he suddenly ran away overseas. He should not have run away overseas when both RTM and TV3 had offered a live telecast of the debates. At that time neither MACC nor the IGP had issued any statements against the debates prejudicing investigations.
After all, how could the debates prejudice investigations when TV3 had attacked me every night for at least 15 minutes in their hourly Bulletin Utama News. It was only after it was clear that Rahman had no choice but to debate with me, that he was “saved” by relying on the excuse of having to agree with the MACC and IGP. And yet TV3 continues with its nightly 15 minutes attack on me until now.
If Rahman is so committed to complying with the advice of the authorities why then did he not listen to the advice of Parliament Speaker Tan Sri Amin Pandikar that he should withdraw the unparliamentary word that he used against me in Parliament. His refusal to withdraw the unparliamentary word caused me to be ejected, a clear act of injustice that the victim was punished when the Minister was wrong.
Unlike Rahman, I have never run away and co-operated fully with the authorities because I have nothing to hide. Unlike Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and the RM50 billion 1MDB scandal and the RM2.6 billion donation scandal, I am willing to face my accusers in an open debate because truth will prevail. By chickening out of his own debate challenge, Rahman has proven who is running away from the truth.
Perhaps I should advise Rahman to check his facts before issuing challenges to debate. Or that an honest man or woman dies but once, whereas a coward dies a thousand deaths.