I cannot help thinking of the Greek saying “Those whom the Gods wish to destroy they first make mad” when I followed the mounting crescendo in the gratuitous attacks by UMNO leaders on tycoon Robert Kuok in the past three days.
I am utterly shocked that an UMNO Minister could even denounce Kuok as a “pondan”; “ayam betina”; “coward with no testicles”; challenged him to return to Malaysia to contest in the coming general election and even to surrender his Malaysian citizenship.
What are the reasons for UMNO leaders going bersek in making gratuitous attacks against tycoon Robert Kuok, even resorting to lies and falsehoods?
For it is pure lie and unadulterated falsehood that Robert Kuok funded the DAP whether from overseas or locally; and I reiterate what I said in Batu Pahat yesterday, that in my 53 years in politics, I have not received a single sen from Robert Kuok, whether through his nephew James Kuok or anyone else.
Is the whole juggernaut of the Special Branch, the Income Tax and Revenue Department and the various government agencies so incompetent that they have no clue that Robert Kuok had been funding DAP to the tune of hundreds of millions or billions of ringgit?
What could be the reasons for UMNO leaders going bersek in mounting the gratuitous, false and baseless attacks on Robert Kuok?
Could it be that some UMNO leader approached Robert Kuok for donations and was rebuffed, as Robert Kuok had revealed in his recent memoirs that he had contributed funds to Barisan Nasional and MCA “especially when it comes to election time”.
I do not know. I am not making assertions but only trying to find answers.
But I am utterly ashamed that the MCA leaders had stood idle for three days while UMNO leaders intensified the gratuitous, false and baseless attacks on Robert Kuok, especially as Robert Kuok had been the benefactor and even savior of the MCA several times.
According to his memoirs published recently, Robert Kuok had saved MCA many times, including bailing out an MCA president with RM20 million in a Singapore court in 1986 and rescuing MCA’s business projects that were doomed to fail.
Robert Kuok’s memoirs recounted how he “kept getting dragged into Malaysian politics” even after he relocated to Hong Kong in the 1980s, and the recent gratuitous attacks on him is the most recent example.
Although DAP and have not received a single sen from Robert Kuok in the past 53 years , I will not stand for any grave injustice, which is what the UMNO leaders had perpetrated on Robert Kuok in their recent gratuitous, false and baseless attacks on Robert Kuok.
UMNO leaders who attacked Robert Kuok owes the tycoon a public apology, and this the least the MCA Ministers and leaders should do – to raise in Cabinet and to convene a meeting of the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council to ask UMNO leaders to publicly apologise to Robert Kuok.
(Speech at the DAP kopitiam ceramah at Kampong Raja, Cameron Highland on Monday, 26th February 2018 at 5 pm)