thestar.

Thursday February 19, 200

Stop taking moral high ground, says MCA leader

KUANTAN: Stop being pretentious and hypocritical – those are remarks made by an MCA leader here who has urged Malaysians to stop playing the blame game and to ponder over the decay in moral standards.

MCA central committee member Datuk Ti Lian Ker said the latest furore involving Selangor executive councillor and PKR assemblyman Elizabeth Wong whose semi-nude photographs were being circulated was just another example of this hypocrisy.

Ti said he was appalled when Gombak MP Azmin Ali showed little sympathy and took the moral high ground.

“Let’s be fair and accept that many Malaysians are exerting their personal liberties privately but publicly we are pretentious and very hypocritical in our posturing.

“Where will all this lead us to? I remember those days when we could mingle freely and yet maintain our pride and dignity,” he wrote in his blog.

Ti, who is also the Kuantan MCA division chief, said one should not allow khalwat (close proximity) to affect the freedom and mindset of single women, particularly non-bumiputras.

“What Elizabeth (Wong) did is not something wrong, instead it is becoming a norm. It so happened that she is a prominent figure and a politician.

“The point that needs to be emphasised is the private lives of politicians are as sacrosanct as that of any other citizen and politicians deserve the same degree of respect as anyone else,” he added.

He questioned whether state laws should be changed towards “satisfying the aggressive few or in the interest of the people”.

Related stories:
Boyfriend to be quizzed
Khalid to brief Selangor Sultan next Wednesday
Boyfriend can be charged, says Zahid
Iskandar: Wong may have been framed
Najib: BN not involved
Boyfriend’s ex-boss centre of attention in Parliament
Service centre stays open
A thin line crossed for Eli Wong