Soi Lek tries to damage control but reveals MCA is just as keen to cheat as Umno

MCA president Chua Soi Lek tried to damage control after "my man" said overseas voting should not be allowed as Malaysians living abroad were out of touch with what was going on in the country.

But despite all the talk, at the end of the day, the MCA is still against overseas voting. It is ironic as Soi Lek's explanation may be even lamer than that provided by party central committee member Ei Kim Hock.

Soi Lek's rationale was the 'high' cost and 'logistical nightmare' involved. To the Malaysian diaspora - many who left due to disgust over the Umno-BN's endemic corruption - this can only further alienate them.

News that RM10 million of public money was spent by a national beef production project to buy a super-plush condo in Bangsar for Women's Minister Shahrizat Jalil's family can only rub more salt to the wound. Especially, since the project to supply cheap beef to Malaysians was awarded to her family without any publicly announced open tender.

Indeed, Soi Lek may be even more "out of touch" with the current mindset of Malaysians, who are fed up of excuses as they suffer continually rising prices and tough living conditions.

“My man didn’t explain it properly. They came on Wednesday evening to say there must be somebody representing MCA. So we picked one of the nine guys who was willing to go,” was the explanation Soi Lek offered for Ei's remark that has been slammed as "boorish" and "backwards".

Remember "camera angle"

This is not the first time that Soi Lek has tried to show off and failed miserably in the process. In the aftermath of the July 9 Bersih rally for free and fair elections, MCA deputy president and Health minister Liow Tiong Lai had insisted the police did not fire tear gas or acid water into the compound of the Tung Shin hospital. Given the huge amount of video and photographic evidence to the contrary, Liow was flayed.

White knite Soi Lek came to his rescue with a joint press conference, where Soi Lek told reporters that the visuals only seemed as if the police had attacked the Tung Shin, but in actual, it was just "camera angle". Eventually, Liow apologized for his mistake although Soi Lek has kept mum.

On Friday, Soi Lek pulled different rabbits out of his hat, possible as skinny as the Bersih ones. He clarified that the MCA did not agree with overseas voting because it presented a “logistical nightmare” as considerable resources would have to be devoted to ensure its success.

He gave the example of ballot boxes, about 800 of which would have to be provided at every Malaysian foreign mission, to allow Malaysians abroad to vote for their specific constituency. Such a system would also be open to abuse, So Lek said, noting that there were opportunities for vote tampering if ballot boxes were not properly secured at all times.

But he failed to convince.

"Are 800 countries in the world? Cannot voting be centralized in the main mission of each country? Isn't that a good start? If Malaysia cannot afford to do this, it is a shame. How much would it cost seriously? And if security cannot even be provided given that a mission is already supposed to be a secure place, it speaks very poorly of BN's organization skills," PKR vice president Chua Soi Lek told Malaysia Chronicle.

"Also, if you look at what Ei said, it is very revealing. It is not just Umno wanting to cheat their way through, MCA and the whole BN gang are in cahoots. They too want to win desperately to the extent they will sacrifice the rights of the people."

The Ei give-away

Ei had told the parliamentary election reform panel that Malaysians living abroad were not 'qualified' to vote as MCA’s research had shown that most Malaysians overseas only received information from questionable sources, which may not reflect the true conditions on the ground.

“What they read about Malaysia may therefore be biased and is the wrong information. It does not give them the whole truthful picture about what is going on in the country. The future of Malaysia should be determined by those who have faith and still remained in the country,” said Ei.

Not only that, Ei further revealed the MCA's weak principles when he stressed that the existing electoral system should be maintained and there was no need for reforms other than cleaning up the electoral roll.

Additionally, Ei said the MCA was against automatic voter registration because “if a citizen does not want to register manually in the first place, there is not much point in forcing an individual to be in the electoral roll”.

Malaysia Chronicle