PETALING JAYA: MCA president Liow Tiong Lai was likely “directed” by Umno to help Barisan Nasional (BN) by alluding to DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang possibly wanting to become prime minister, says a former MCA leader.

Lee Hwa Beng, a former MCA central committee member who was sacked by the party in 2013, said it was also strange that Liow would be referring to a comment by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, seemingly believing what was said about Lim aspiring to be prime minister.

Bernama had earlier reported the transport minister as saying that it would be detrimental to the nation if Lim became prime minister.

Liow called Lim an unprincipled politician, saying “only he knows if he has ambitions of becoming prime minister or deputy prime minister”, in reference to Hadi’s comments.

“Why is Liow believing what Hadi said? Nobody will believe that Kit Siang wants to be prime minister. Everybody knows that he doesn’t want to be the PM,” Lee told FMT.

“DAP may want some influence should the opposition coalition win the next general election, but they don’t wish for Kit Siang to be PM, that’s for sure.”

Lee, who is also the former Port Klang Authority chairman, suggested Liow was just being used by Umno.

“I believe the only reason for Liow’s comments is him trying to help the PAS-Umno ‘team’ get votes. He likely said those things to put DAP in a bad light.

“Also, what Liow said just proves that Umno is merely using him as a puppet,” said Lee, who had earlier posted on his Twitter account asking MCA if they preferred a PM from PAS over DAP.

The veteran politician also said that it would not matter what Liow did, as “nothing will bring MCA back”.

“He must realise by now that MCA has lost all their Chinese support. The Chinese know that MCA winning does not translate into the party securing a seat in the cabinet.

“Whatever MCA wins, it will strengthen Umno. It won’t make any difference to MCA in the next general election because they will still lose out,” he said.

He added that, even if the Chinese don’t like the DAP, they would rather support the opposition party over MCA knowing that it has to listen to Umno and its voice would not be heard in the Barisan Nasional coalition.

Detrimental to nation if Kit Siang becomes PM, says Liow

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2013/10/17/umno-is-the-real-mca-opponent/

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2013/10/14/lees-sacking-douses-anti-chua-movement/