DAP’s Bagan Dalam assemblyman Satees Muniandy said Hui Ying’s appointment as a senator in the upper house of Parliament was not due to her relationship with Kit Siang but it was based on merit as she was the party’s brains on election strategy.
Satees was responding to a statement by the MIC’s C Sivarraajh that Hui Ying’s appointment was an “expansion of the Lim dynasty” and would encourage nepotism in the country.
“Hui Ying is no stranger to Penang DAP. She has been our election campaign director for the past two general elections. It is thanks to her our DAP candidates received more votes and a bigger majority.
“She stood in the state DAP elections to become the state secretary for the party, she was never appointed by the leadership. Hui Ying’s appointment is based on merit and her contribution all these years.
“If nominating Hui Ying as a senator is considered nepotism, then what does Sivarraajh say about the appointment of S Vellpaari as treasurer-general of the MIC, when everyone knows he is the son of former MIC president S Samy Vellu?” he asked.
Satees also said it was unfair to question Hui Ying’s nomination as it was proposed at the state assembly and was subsequently voted on unanimously by its members.
Hui Ying, 55, and former PKR Balik Pulau MP Yusmadi Yusoff, 44, were proposed as the state’s nominees to the Dewan Negara on Aug 10.