Chua: Chinese community must think carefully before voting
(The Star) – The Chinese community must ask themselves whether Pakatan Rakyat can perform better than Barisan Nasional before they decide on who to vote for in the coming general election, MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek said.
Singling out DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng’s “Ubah” (change) battle cry, Dr Chua described Lim’s act as most irresponsible.
He said the Penang Chief Minister must declare whether he had ambitions to become Deputy Prime Minister should Pakatan take over Putrajaya before urging the people to change the Government.
“If Lim Guan Eng is not even the DPM, how can he guarantee the people are in for better days ahead?” he said at a press conference yesterday.
Dr Chua said the DAP tried to downplay non-Muslims’ fear of PAS imposing its religious values on them by declaring its support for PKR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to be Prime Minister.
He pointed out that PAS was the dominant party in Pakatan but none of the top PAS leaders had made a similar declaration.
Dr Chua said Pakatan had not been doing a better job in Kelantan, Kedah, Selangor and Penang since the last elections.
Kelantan banned the sale of lottery to non-Muslims, while abattoirs had been demolished in Kedah.
Neither the Selangor nor Penang state government had allocated any land for Chinese primary schools, he added.
“The questions are: can Pakatan be better than Barisan; guarantee fair treatment for the Chinese; have peace and stability in the country; and have a Prime Minister who can do better than Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak?” he asked.
In Johor Baru, Dr Chua also urged the Chinese community to think properly before casting their vote in the next general election.
He said this after attending a fund-raising dinner for SJKC Ming Chih on Friday.
Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong, who was at the event and pledged an allocation of RM150,000 for the school, urged Pakatan states, especially Selangor, to emulate Johor when allocating land for the construction of Chinese and Tamil schools.
“In Johor, for the past 20 years, it has been a norm for the state to allocate 5ha,” he said.
Dr Wee said he was disappointed that the Subang Jaya Municipal Council had imposed rules such as building a pedestrian crossing for students and also a bus stop for the development of SJKC Tun Tan Siew Sin in Putra Heights.
“This is the work of the local council. How can you expect the school to fund such things which are outside their boundaries?” he said, adding that there should be no politicking when it involved education matters.
Dr Wee said if the Pakatan government wanted to allocate land for Chinese schools, then they had to use their own land and not pledge land belonging to other quarters or agencies.
