'Don't blame Anwar for Yen Yen's PR status'

MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek is mistaken in assigning blame to Anwar Ibrahim for party vice-president Dr Ng Yen Yen’s decision to seek permanent residency in Australia 17 years ago, said DAP Socialist Youth chief Anthony Loke.

In fact, said Loke (left), Chua has tacitly conceded that ministers from his party have been powerless in influencing education policies, to the extent that non-bumiputeras have lost out.

“Is Chua now admitting that MCA ministers were so useless and hopeless that they had no influence whatsoever over our education policies, and just let the Umno education minister ‘make life difficult’ for the non-bumiputera students?” he asked in a statement.

Chua (right) had yesterday claimedthat education policies played a role in Ng’s decision, saying that it was difficult for non-bumiputeras to enter local universities when Anwar was education minister.

Loke ridiculed him, pointing out that Anwar was not even education minister when Ng took up permanent residency in Australia.

“The man who has always boasted that he speaks with ‘facts and figures’ has got even the simple facts wrong!” said Loke. 

“Anwar was not the education minister in the 1990s. He was education minister from 1986 to 1990.”

On Monday, Ng had defended her decision to apply for permanent residency in the 1990s. She renounced it in 1995 when her son graduated from an Australian law school. 

Ng, who was a senator while she held PR status, said she was responding to DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng’s veiled swipesduring his public debate with Chua on Sunday.

Following up on his criticism yesterday, Loke took another swipe at Ng, telling her to apologise to the Australian government for “taking advantage” of her PR status.

“If this is true (that she took up PR status for her son’s education), how can she face the Australian government when discharging her duties as the tourism minister of Malaysia?

“It’s (shameful) for a minister to face a foreign government (after taking advantage of it). Ng must come clean over her PR status issue and Chua should stop giving lame excuses by blaming Anwar,” he added.