Alleged affair ‘a diversion from MCA’s woes’

KUALA LUMPUR: DAP Youth leader Anthony Loke claimed today that MCA’s attack against Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng was an attempt to divert attention from the Kuantan Chinese independent schools debacle.

Loke, the party’s Rasah MP, also alleged the RM1 billion “scandal” involving its allies in the Selangor government as brought up by MCA president’s son Chua Tee Yong was done with a similar aim.

MCA recently stepped up its attacks against the DAP in an apparent election offensive as the ruling coalition gears up for national polls tipped to be held in the coming months.

The party’s Malacca chapter had accused Lim of having an affair with his former aide and that Lim’s wife, Betty Chew, had assaulted the woman.

The allegation was made during the State Legislave Assembly sitting earlier this week, an allegation Lim denied and described as “character assassination”.

Chua, on the other hand, claimed the Pakatan Rakyat administration had “bailed out” troubled state-owned Talam Corporation with taxpayers’ money. Selangor denied the allegation and said it will take the matter to court.

The accusations come amid a backdrop of controversy over MCA’s supposed inability to back calls by 4,000 parents who rallied on May 20 demanding the setting up of an independent Chinese school in Kuantan, Pahang.

‘Low-class politicians’

Loke called MCA leaders “low-class politicians” for resorting to personal attacks against Lim and called them cowards for hiding behind the immunity of the state assembly.

“I dare them to openly repeat the allegation so Lim and Betty can take this matter to court,” he told reporters at the party’s headquarters here.

“If they do not, then it reaffirms that they are liars,” he said.

Lim, who is also DAP secretary-general, threw a similar challenge to his accuser, Duyong state assemblyperson Gan Tian Loo, upon denying the allegation yesterday.

“Let my wife and I prove in court that MCA lied, that Lim Guan Eng is not Dr Chua Soi Lek,” said Lim, in reference to Soi Lek’s admission of an extramarital affair in December 2008.

Soi Lek, the MCA president, insinuated that Lim did have an affair with his former staff but dared not admit it, unlike him who had the “courage” to confess to his mistake and resigned from all positions including his ministerial post.

But Loke said in defence of his leader that Soi Lek was wrong to compare him to Lim as the latter “was not caught with his pants down”, a reference to the video showing Soi Lek’s sexual excursion with an unidentified woman.

“So there is no justification for Soi Lek to ask Lim to quit,” he said.