MCA central committee member Ti Lian Ker said it was regrettable that Ignatius saw fit to damage bilateral relations by criticising the Chinese ambassador Huang Huikang.
“As an ex-diplomat, and as a civil servant, he (Ignatius) would be wiser to be apolitical, rather than to indulge in politicking, what more on an international scale,” said Ti.
Ignatius yesterday said that Huang had cast himself as ‘lord protector’ of the Malaysian Chinese community who tirelessly criss-crossed the country, accompanied by MCA and Umno politicians, visiting dozens of Chinese schools and distributing hundreds of thousands of ringgit in assistance and scholarships.
Ti said Ignatius should welcome funds from the China government as that showed China had confidence in the Malaysian education system and saw the potential in Malaysia’s human capital and talent.
“It is also hypocritical of Datuk Ignatius to conveniently ignore that other governments also offer scholarships to Malaysians or that they sponsor international exchange programmes.
“Japan offers Monbukagakusho scholarships, the United Kingdom has Chevening scholarships while many Malaysians have benefited from Singapore’s well-known Asean scholarship.”
Ti said it was also hypocritical of Ignatius to completely ignore the Malaysian-Chinese entourage from DAP which recently paid Huang a courtesy call, during which the DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng had voiced his support for China’s One Belt and One Road Initiative.
Ti pointed out that a few months ago, PKR vice-president Tian Chua had also led a delegation of the party’s Chinese leaders to meet Huang.
“It is sheer double standards of Ignatius to not condemn the opposition building up bilateral diplomacy with China but he berates Huang, MCA and Umno on the same bilateral ties.
“His unsavoury words indicate he has his own political agenda to tarnish the image of Huang, MCA and Umno.”