Wee denies quit claims, slams Jeff Ooi

KUALA LUMPUR - The in-fighting in the Pakatan Rakyat has taken another notch with Wangsa Maju MP Wee Choo Keong threatening to sue fellow parliamentarian Jeff Ooi over a newspaper speculation.

The report in an English daily, which was translated from a Chinese vernacular paper, had quoted Ooi, the Jelutong MP, as saying that four reps from the three-party Pakatan Rakyat would be defecting within 20 days.

Ooi, from the DAP, said two of the MPs would be from Penang but he did not name them. Neither did he name the other two.

The report, however, speculated Wee (pic) is among the four and it also named Kelana Jaya MP Loh Gwo Burne as being one of the others.

The two Penang MPs

The report speculated that the Penang MPs who would quit are Zahrain Mohamad Hashim (Bayan Baru) and Tan Tee Beng (Nibong Tebal), who are both at loggerheads with DAP secretary-general and Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

The two face disciplinary action for openly criticising Lim and purportedly going against the co-operative spirit of the Pakatan, the PKR, DAP and PAS.

Zahrain had labelled Guan Eng a “dictator, chauvinist and communist-minded”, while Tan said Lim was a "no class" leader, a disgrace to the state and its people and should be removed.

Wee, a lawyer and a former DAP parliamentarian, denied the claims in the tabloid report about his planned resignation to join a Barisan Nasional party and accused Ooi of dragging him into a controversy.

He described the move as “the politics of McCarthyism”, in reference to a former United States senator who was blamed for the country’s witch hunt against suspected communists in the 1950s.

“This is the innate behavior of DAP leaders; playing the ‘politics of tagging’ whenever its leaders are faced with problem.

“This style of low-class politics can carry on in the DAP for all I care, but must be stopped in Pakatan if we are serious in wanting to see a change of government at the 13th general election,” he said.

Wee said he would pursue legal action against Ooi if the latter did not retract what he said within 48 hours.

A smear campaign instead of resolving problems

"They start a smear campaign to accuse others of being Barisan Nasional agents, instead of addressing the real problems," he told a press conference at his office in Wangsa Maju here Friday.

“I don’t like to sue politicians and newspapers but am left with no alternative if Ooi does not retract what he told the paper within 48 hours.

“I have constantly refused to make any comments although, deep down in my heart, I am in full agreement with what have been stated by my colleagues in the PKR,” he said.

He claimed that PKR reps in Penang were treated like step-children by the DAP, and the complaints by his colleagues against Lim should be investigated. - Malaysian Mirror