MP for Petaling Jaya Utara Tony Pua slammed the Election Commission as being a "cat's paw" for the BN government and for telling “desperate lies” after it accused his DAP party of running a racist campaign in the recently concluded Sarawak state election.
“The above accusations unfortunately are all desperate lies by the Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar who has not only failed to ensure free and fair elections in Sarawak but are now trying to justify to its political masters why EC failed to curb the people’s will to vote for Pakatan Rakyat in the urban centres,” Tony said in a media statement released on Monday.
He was referring to the EC deputy commissioner who had been reported by Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia as having made the allegations.
According to Tony, Wan Ahmad alleged that most of DAP’s banners in Chinese contained racial elements which were incendiary in nature and were in breach of Section 4 of the Election Offences Act. However, because there were “too many” of such posters and banners, the EC and police were unable to take any action.
What about SUPP
In the Utusan report, DAP Pending candidate Violet Yong was also accused of having said that “we have had enough of a Melanau being the Chief Minister” during a closed-door ceramah or political rally.
“I challenge the EC to come up with prove that the DAP has put up banners which were racial in nature which incites racial hatred and anger,” rebutted Tony.
“Throughout the entire campaign, we have ensure that practically all our campaign materials contains at least 2 languages, whether in Bahasa Malaysia, English, Chinese or Iban. Our campaign theme has been thoroughly focused on fighting corruption, cronyism and abuse of power and never on a particular race.”
He also stressed that DAP did not hold any closed-door rally throughout the election campaign.
The DAP had doubled its catch of seats in the Sarawak assembly to 12, scaring the BN with its dominance over the Chinese electorate. Most of the seats were won from Chinese-based SUPP.
Tony counter-accused SUPP of being the ones who played the racial card and questioned why the EC closed an eye to its activities.
“In fact, if there was any party which was inciting racial sentiments during the election, it was from Barisan Nasional, and SUPP in particular. Nearly all SUPP banners were only in the Chinese language, and they threatened the Chinese community that if the latter failed to support SUPP, the Government will ignore their needs in the future. Why didn’t EC reprimand or take action against the SUPP?” demanded Tony.
"Barisan Nasional, having lost the confidence of the public, particularly in the urban centres are now using government agencies such as the Election Commission to incite racial hatred against the DAP in order to protect their own selfish political interest. Datuk Wan Ahmad should resign for not only failing to ensure a level playing field for elections in Sarawak, but also now becoming the cat’s paw for BN to defame and denigrate Pakatan Rakyat component parties."
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