APRIL 20- Incumbent Pandan MP Ong Tee Keat (photo) said he will not be backing his former aide Allan Tan’s campaign to become the constituency’s new parliamentarian as an Independent candidate.
“He is an Independent candidate while I am in BN,” he pointed out at a press conference today.
Although he has not been given the mandate to defend his seat, he said he is willing to campaign for BN if anyone dared to ask him to do so, but he believed no such request would be made because they fear being associated with a party outcast. However, Ong fidgeted for answers when asked if he would also campaign for Gary Lim, the MCA candidate for Pandan.
“I have no qualms, but then it is his choice (to make). But then again there is another element to taken into consideration.
“If you want to sell the product, you must know what to sell. You must tell the people of its characteristics, advantages… but I don’t know him.
“It is not that I am unwilling, and I am not being sarcastic, but if he were an old friend I would know exactly what to promote,” he said.
Pressed repeatedly by reporters for a definitive answer, Ong said he would consider campaigning for Lim, but suggested the MCA president Chua is more suited to the task, since he sees Lim as a ‘winnable candidate’.
‘Forced to reconsider wish to contest’
Ong added that although he wished to contest if given the mandate to do so, he was forced to reconsider because he lacked the financial resources to campaign and run his social welfare services at the same time.
“Therefore I have chosen for these (welfare) programmes to be continued, and thus I have to reconsider my wish to contest,” he said.
However, he said he is merely taking a ‘pause’ from politics and is not retiring, but it is too early to say if he would be making a comeback at the next general election. To a question, he also denied that he is not contesting in order to focus on the upcoming MCA elections. As for Tan, Ong said he had indeed tendered his resignation as his private secretary yesterday and sought his blessing to contest.
However, Ong said he had replied that he had no power to give such a blessing and it is solely up to Tan whether or not he wants to contest. He said he was also informed only yesterday that various residents associations, neighbourhood watches, and joint management committees have banded together to prepare campaign materiel to support him, including banners bearing Ong’s Chinese surname and his initials ‘OTK’.
Although these were displayed prominently by supporters marching Tan to the nomination centre this morning, Ong denied having a hand in the matter, or that Tan was acting as a proxy for him. Meanwhile, at the nomination centre earlier, PKR’s Pandan candidate Rafizi Ramli said he was “relieved” that Ong is not contesting.
“It would have been a lot more difficult to campaign if Ong were to stand, because it would split the Chinese Malaysian votes and we would have to contend with two equally strong contenders.
“Now I think it is going to be slightly easier to campaign and slightly easier to preach about national issues. Otherwise Ong would galvanise a lot of the campaign around his personality,” he said.
Nevertheless, with BN money and machinery and Tan’s grassroots network after over a decade working under Ong, Rafizi predicts that it will still be a close fight for Pandan.
Even before any of the Pandan candidates had left the nomination centre, Rafizi had already launched a broadside against Lim by issuing a press statement question the latter’s integrity and his professional conduct as a lawyer.
“If Lim does not obey the rules and ethics of being a lawyer, there is a risk that he could not be trusted as an elected representative.
“It is my responsibility to reveal this to the people of Pandan, so that they may choose a representative who is clean, ethical, and trustworthy,” the statement read.
However when asked if he is running a smear campaign against Lim, Rafizi said he was merely informing the public and he would focus his campaign around bread and butter issues and crime.
Lim had previously declined to comment on the matter, saying that he would wait until receiving official correspondence from the Malaysian Bar before doing.
-MALAYSIS KINI
