Soi Lek slammed for silliness in telling Pakatan MPs to quit if 2008 GE tainted

Scandal-plagued MCA president Chua Soi Lek has stirred up a new controversy. He has challenged the Pakayan Rakyat elected representatives to resign if they feel the 2008 general election was skewed.

“Why hold on to power after three years and then say, oh, it is tainted? If they were elected on a tainted roll, they should have the political and moral courage to resign then,” Soi Lek told reporters on Tuesday.

However, his words of wisdom stumped his political rivals.

"What is he talking about? This is so silly, why should Pakatan resign due to an electoral roll corrupted by the BN? It is the BN elected representatives who should quit. He is a disgrace, he can't even reason properly," PKR MP for Gopeng Lee Boon Chye tod Malaysia Chronicle.

The hole Najib dug for BN

Indeed, Soi Lek may have open the floodgates on himself and his party. But to be fair to him, like all other BN parties, the MCA is under tremendous pressure. They have to brazen it out and demonize the Bersih 2.0 rally due for July 9 because that was the decision made by Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Perhaps it was a foolish reaction by Najib to antagonize citizens by rousing a storm of objections through unsavoury means against the rally, which aims to gather Malaysians from all walks of life to march to the Palace and deliver a memorandum containing 8 electoral reforms to the King.

The BN resistance and the way they are pressuring their loyalists to condemn the rally, which even prominent Muslims clerics have described as being noble in basis, has affirmed public suspicion that Najib was afraid he would be unable to win the next general election without cheating.

The 13th GE does not need to be called before March 2013 but the whole nation is expecting it to be held this year or at the latest early next year before the BN implements a slew of price hikes.

Another BN-friendly party that has spoken up against the Bersih rally is minnow Makkal Sakti.

Gerakan and MIC have not made any public announcements so far, but they are highly unlikely to break from Najib's line.

Meanwhile, Soi Lek reverted to the BN mantra that Bersih was off-limits because it was supported by the Pakatan Rakyat led by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim.

This reasoning has also been condemned as being faulty and debunked by a host of parties including Bersih, Pakatan and civil society leaders.

"This is a non-partisan march by the citizens. We have invited everyone to join, including the BN. But they chose not to join whereas Pakatan is eager to take part. They say they support the 8 demands for electoral forms, but BN hasn't said anything about the reforms. That's it. How does this make the rally a Pakatan initiative or reduce the importance of the 8 electoral demands," Bersih president Ambiga Sreenevasan was reported as saying, when the BN accusation surfaced last week.

Nevertheless, stubborn Soi Lek preferred the wisdom of his own insight.

“We cannot accept the objective of this illegal rally,” said Soi Lek.

- Malaysia Chronicle