DAP, look in the mirror before asking people to quit

DAP politicians are also guilty of making nonsensical remarks, but no action seems to have been taken against them by the party.

Ti Lian Ker, FMT

Urging someone to resign over an action or remark seems to be a reflex action for DAP.

It has on numerous occasions, as I pointed out in a previous article, demanded that Barisan Nasional leaders step down over infractions and also off-colour remarks.

Now, there are times when I agree with such calls, especially when it comes to racist remarks. But then, there are times when I not only disagree, but am dumbfounded.

Yesterday was one of those times when I was left bemused.

Yesterday, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng demanded that Deputy Health Minister Dr Hilmi Yahaya resign following the latter’s reported remarks that only women doctors assist in child birth.

Let us set aside the fact that Hilmi has already clarified his comments and said the report had given the wrong impression.

Here, we have a DAP secretary-general who wants a deputy minister to resign because of a “nonsensical” remark.

This is the secretary-general of a party, whose members have in the past uttered “nonsensical” and even dispicable remarks.

In the last Sarawak election, DAP’s firebrand “Superman” Hew Kuan Yau was filmed uttering the words “screw the Malays”, and at the same time urging voters to back its candidate, Abdul Aziz Isa.

Yet, despite this, Hew was merely reprimanded.

Last year, Nga Kor Ming apologised for defaming the prime minister and his wife on Facebook. While it was commendable of him to do so, to the best to my knowledge, DAP did not demand that Nga step down for his particular nonsensical remark.

In 2014, lawmaker Lim Lip Eng, at a press conference, claimed that DAP leaders would be able to find the missing MH370 if the party was given control of the navy or air force.

That was not only a nonsensical statement but also insensitive. Despite this, if memory serves me right, no action was taken against Lip Eng. His fellow DAP colleague, M Kulasegaran, even brushed off the comments as a joke.

Which brings me back to Guan Eng’s call for Hilmi to resign over his reported remarks.

It just shows, yet again, that the party does not practise what it preaches and in this case his call reeks of arrogance.

It also reminds me of a quote by American politician Sam Rayburn, who once said: “You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too.”

Maybe it’s time DAP stuck this quote to a large mirror so that it can have a better look at itself before urging another to step down.

Ti Lian Ker is MCA’s Central Committee member and chairman of its Religious Harmony Bureau.