KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15 — MCA leaders should make clear their stand on Umno Youth exco member Wan Muhammad Azri Wan Deris’ remarks on revoking Chinese and Indian communities’ rights to vote, DAP’s Syahredzan Johan said today.
The lawyer who is also Lim Kit Siang’s political secretary explained that voting rights are sacred under the Federal Constitution, and anyone who makes any statement to deny such rights of any group can amount hate speech.
“The vast majority of Malaysians would reject any attempt to divide Malaysians into different class of citizens based on race or revoke the voting rights of certain races or based on political affiliations.
“On social media, most Malaysians have made clear their rejection of the Umno leader’s remarks,” he said in a statement, referring to the man also known as Papagomo.
“As such, the MCA leadership including [Datuk] Wee Jeck Seng must strongly condemn Wan Muhammad Azri for his remarks, failing which, Malaysians can conclude that the party would tolerate such extreme views for political expediency,” he added.
Wee is the BN candidate for Tanjong Piai’s by-election which is scheduled tomorrow.
In the 36-second video clip originally published in November last year but made viral again yesterday, Azri claimed he was hoping for a Bumiputera government to be established with a two-thirds Parliamentary majority, so it can withdraw the voting rights of the Chinese and Indians.
Today, the controversial politician claimed that his statement was aimed at those from DAP and he has no problems with MCA, as he was among those who supported the idea of fielding an MCA candidate in the Tanjung Piai by-election.
Both MCA and Umno have stayed mum over the clip, with Umno Youth chief Datuk Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki reportedly saying it was Azri’s personal view and does not reflect the stand of the party.
