Jessie Ooi defends poser to Guan Eng

Selangor MCA Beliawanis chief Jessie Ooi has defended the veracity of her claims in her question to DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, but said the question was put across wrongly during the Feb 18 debate.

In a statement today, Ooi (left) said her poser on rising assessment rates was not in reference to Penang, which had been misinterpreted by the media and the public.

“Because I mentioned that I am ‘half a Penangite’, people thought I was referring to Penang. I say what I must, I do what I must. This is my principle.

“At the time, I did not clearly mention which state (I was referring to). Due to the short time limit (to pose a question) I used the wrong words.

“At the time, I wanted to refer to the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat state government, who promised in 2008 to lower assessment rate, but did not keep to this promise.

“The people of Selangor are not happy with this. News reports stating that I was referring to Penang are inaccurate,” she said.

Car clamping incident

On the infamous remark about the car-towing incident, Ooi explained that it had stemmed from the lack of parking space along Lebuh Pantai, Penang.

She said people who wanted to use the facilities of the banks along the road at night were forced to park illegally outside the bank for security reasons.

Some of these vehicles ended up being clamped by local government enforcement officers and later towed away.

“Thus, I raised the issue, hoping that Lim (as Penang chief minister) would be able to resolve this problem, instead of allowing enforcement officers who are under his control to burden the public,” she said.

During the debate, Ooi had claimed that she had on two occasions saw cars being towed after 10.30pm when there was no traffic, and thus the vehicles had posed no obstruction to traffic.

Questioning Pakatan’s performance

She added in her question that she saw a fight resulting from one such incident, which ended up with people being severely injured.

Today, Ooi explained that her question was in reference to incidents which were witnessed by her and her husband.

“The car clamping issue has been raised before in the press and discussed on Facebook,” she said.

Ooi explained that she had raised the two issues because the debate between Lim and MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek had touched on Pakatan’s performance in several states which it administers.

She said that she was responding to Lim’s claim that his administration had managed to reduce the public’s burden and increase government revenue.