There is a rule of thumb in political exchanges that personal attacks or character assassination is the last resort of political opportunists and scoundrels who have run out of arguments based on facts and reason, and this is what the MCA President Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai resorted to when he launched a ferocious personal attack on me, accusing the DAP as a privately-owned “Kit Siang & Son Sdn. Bhd” and not a political party.

I can understand Liow’s frustration and exasperation, but it is no justification nevertheless for him to resort to personal attacks and character-assassination.

What was Liow frustrated and exasperated about?

The latest incident was the MCA leadership’s total inability to respond to my statement on Thursday catching Liow “red-handed” in saying one thing to the Chinese but giving a totally different impression to the Malays – which is the height of political dishonesty and chicanery at work in plural Malaysia.

I had said in my statement of Thursday, 5th January 2016:

“After MCA’s degeneration into a ‘7/11 political party’, very few Malaysians paid much attention to sayings and doings of MCA leaders, including Ministers – and I am one of them.

“But the Malaysiakini headline yesterday “MCA slams ‘amnesiac’ Kit Siang over hudud bill” aroused my curiosity, for there is some mental life left if one can use words like ‘amnesiac’!

“This led me to read the report but I was bound for a disappointment.

“I was accused of having lost my memory and advised to immediately consult a doctor for forgetting that “on Dec 30, 2016, MCA president Liow Tiong Lai had declared that ‘regardless of any bill tabled by the opposition or Umno, if it is against the constitution, MCA will oppose it to the end’.”

“I did not forget. I just did not know.

“In utter humility, I searched the website of MCA’s official mouthpiece, the Star. It was not there.

“For the first time, I visited the MCA website, and it was also not there.

“Liow might have told the Chinese media, but that is exactly the point about MCA Ministers and leaders – they say one thing to the Chinese media but a very different thing to UMNO leaders!

“May be the only occasion when MCA leaders dare to differ from UMNO leaders is over my relationship with Tun Dr. Mahathir.

“UMNO leaders are telling the Malays that Mahathir has become my pawn and puppet, but MCA leaders disagreed, for they are telling the Chinese that I am Mahathir’s pawn and puppet.

“Can the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council convene an emergency meeting to resolve this conundrum – whether I am Mahathir’s stooge or Mahathir is my stooge?

“Clearly, it has never entered into the mind of MCA leaders that one should have the courage of conviction of one’s beliefs, the dignity and humility to stand by one principles, and one should never forget the injunction 不為五斗米折腰 or bowing for five pecks of price (meaning, unwilling to do anything demeaning for material gain).”

The MCA leaders, propagandists and cybertroopers would have won the argument by simply showing where and when in the Star and the MCA website Liow’s statement of Dec. 30, 2016 declaring that MCA Ministers and MPs would oppose Hadi’s private member’s bill even if supported by UMNO and taken over by the Barisan Nasional government.

But the MCA leadership is unable to do this, for the simple reason that Liow’s statement of Dec. 30 was made to the Chinese media, and was not even published in the MCA mouthpiece, the Star, and completely omitted on the MCA website.

Having been caught “red-handed” in the act of political hypocrisy and chicanery, saying one thing to the Chinese but giving a different impression to the Malay community, the MCA leaders should have the grace and humility to admit their wrongs and mischief.

Instead, Liow resorted to the tactics of the desperate and the reckless – launching an invective of personal attacks on me to distract attention from the serious questions I have raised.

I do not propose to descend to Liow’s level and reply on a personal level, but Liow must answer for his and the MCA leadership’s political record, and answer:

Why has MCA been reduced a single-digit Parliamentary representation in the Dewan Rakyat, when it had 27 elected MPs in 1964 General Election, 24 MPs in 1982 General Election, 30 MPs in 1995 General Election, 28 MPs in 1999 GE and 31 MPs in 2004 GE?

Why has MCA got more Senators (ten unelected) than elected MPs (seven)?

Why with seven elected MPs, MCA is able to get three Ministers and four Deputy Ministers?

Isn’t the controversy of over the hold-up of RM50 million allocation for Chinese primary schools for last year, which has to take three MCA Ministers and four Deputy Ministers and the intervention of the MCA President with the Prime Minister to hopefully resolve by January 19, a sickening indication of the utter irrelevance and impotence of MCA in the Barisan Nasional corridors of power?

Had the three MCA Ministers and four Deputy Ministers ever raised with the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, whether in Cabinet, Barisan Nasional Supreme Council or other Barisan Nasional gatherings, the infamy and ignominy of the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal and Malaysia’s ascent to the infamous club of “global kleptocracy”?

MCA claims to represent the Chinese in Malaysia. Why are hundreds of thousands running into millions over the decades of Chinese together with Indians and Malays migrating overseas, because they have lost confidence and hope in Malaysia?

A test of a person’s political acuity and mental prowess is whether he knows he is insulting and humiliating himself. For instance, when Liow said that DAP is nothing but a “Kit Siang & Son Sdn Bhd”, is he aware that he is in fact insulting and humiliating himself that he could be President of an MCA which had been reduced into a “7/11” political party by a “father and son Sdn. Bhd” and still very happy to be a Minister of world-known kleptocratic government?

Liow said DAP is a party without principles and that I will sell whatever principles I have to stay in power.

Liow is quite joker, talking about “selling whatever principles to stay in power” – is he referring to my two stints of detention under the Internal Security Act and Guan Eng’s detention under the ISA under Operation Lalang and imprisonment for 12 months in Kajang Prisons for crossing the racial divide and defending the dignity and honour of an underaged Malay girl?

Liow should know better than anyone else that if I am prepared to sell my principles, he would have no hope whatsoever to come near a Ministerial post – even a very dishonourable and craven one.

But we must not allow Liow as well as Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong and Datuk Seri Dr. S. Subramaniam the opportunity and excuse to distract attention from RUU 355 and demand that the Presidents of MCA, Gerakan and MIC explain how they could reconcile their public stand that MCA, Gerakan and MIC Ministers and MPs will oppose PAS President Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi’s private member’s bill with the announcement by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak that the Barisan Nasional government will vote in support of Hadi’s private member’s bill motion in March Parliament and take over Hadi’s bill?

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Nancy Shukri has admitted that the Sarawak BN leaders have yet to be briefed on the proposed government takeover of Hadi’s private member’s bill – and the same applies for the other 13 Barisan Nasional component parties, whether MCA, Gerakan or MIC.

I hope Liow Tiong Lai, Mah Siew Keong or S. Subramaniam will pluck up the courage to present the Pensiangan Formula to the Cabinet as the best way to address the political and constitutional stalemate created by UMNO’s support for Hadi’s private member’s bill.

The Pensiangan Formula comprises two elements, viz:

• Firstly, no government take over of Hadi’s private member’s bill; and

• Secondly, the formation of an all-party Parliamentary Select Committee with the overall objective to strengthen inter-religious relations in Malaysia based on the Malaysian Constitution, Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) and Rukunegara, and with the specific objective to study Hadi’s private member’s motion, and to make recommendations.

This is particularly important and pertinent as two UMNO leaders, namely Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom and the Deputy Minister for International Trade and Industry, Datuk Ahmad Mazlan had publicly admitted about a secret UMNO agenda and conspiracy to present a “fait accompli” to the other 13 Barisan Nasional component parties to compel them to support Hadi’s motion in Parliament in March and the BN government takeover of Hadi’s private member’s bill.

The answer to UMNO’s agenda and conspiracy to present a “fait accompli” to the other 13 Barisan Nasional parties and to compel them to vote for Hadi’s private member’s bill motion in the March Parliament to be followed by Barisan Nasional take-over of Hadi’s bill is the Pensiangan Formula.

The question is whether Liow, Mah and Subramaniam dare to embrace the Pensiangan Formula and present it to the Cabinet next Wednesday as the best solution to address the constitutional and political stalemate created by UMNO’s support for Hadi’s private member’s bill.