Ling has Kit Siang’s respect for standing up to Najib

DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang has doffed his hat at former MCA president Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik for standing his ground in calling for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's resignation and daring to face the latter in court. Lim also urged MCA to stand by their former leader. "Ling has my grudging respect for standing his ground calling on Najib to resign and his readiness to face Najib in court. "It is a pity however that he has been abandoned by the MCA leadership," he said in a statement. Lim, who is Gelang Patah MP, said with the MCA annual general meeting being held this weekend, he said MCA delegates had the chance to decide whether to support Dr Ling or to toe the line laid by its present leaders. He said MCA had suffered losses in the general election, leaving it with only seven MPs and 11 assemblymen nationwide, due to its failure to take a courageous and principled stand on the “Major Rights and Major Wrongs” in the country. He said MCA would be repeating a "fatal mistake" if it was not ready to give Dr Ling its full backing to stand up against issues like the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal and the pre-13th general election RM2.6 billion donation controversy surrounding Najib. "The three MCA ministers, Liow, Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong and Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan, and all MCA parliamentary candidates should declare before the MCA annual general meeting whether they had received funding from the RM2.6 billion 'donation' for their campaign, and if so, the amount of such funding." Lim said MCA – being the first political party to have its AGM after the Malay rulers issued an unprecedented and historic statement on Tuesday, calling for a swift and transparent investigation into 1MDB – should rise up to the occasion to respond in a responsible and exemplary manner to the concerns raised by the sultans, which included the rising racial tensions that threatened unity. He also said MCA delegates could not ignore the accusation by former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad that Umno and the Barisan Nasional government had deliberately turned the Bersih 4 protest into a racial issue to divert attention from the 1MDB imbroglio. – October 8, 2015.