PKR’s Lee Boon Chye urges Tian Chua to back down in Batu ‘before it’s too late’

IPOH, November 7 — Perak PKR (PKR) operation centre spokesman Dr Lee Boon Chye today urge his contemporary Chua Tian Chang to withdraw his independent campaign for the Batu federal seat against their party’s candidate.

Dr Lee, the incumbent Gopeng MP who will not defend the seat in the 15th general election, told Chua he could still serve the people and the party without being a member of parliament.

“Chua contesting the seat will definitely divide the votes and it will only benefit Barisan Nasional (BN).

“I think he should pull out; he still has the space to do it before it’s too late,” he told a press conference at the Perak PKR office in Medan Istana here.

Today, Dr Lee reminded Chua that PKR’s fight was not over as the Pakatan Harapan coalition lost control of the government in 2020 despite winning the 14th general election.

“However, there is still hope again for us in this general election where we can make the Pakatan Harapan (PH) and PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the prime minister.

“So, this general election is not about who getting the MP post. We can still serve the people without the post,” he said.

On Saturday, the former PKR vice-president better known as Tian Chua filed to contest Batu as an independent candidate, seeking a return to the urban seat he had represented for two terms from 2008.

He told reporters in Kuala Lumpur later that he was ready to face any action by the PKR leadership.

Chua said decided to contest in Batu again despite PKR’s decision as he wanted to fulfill a promise he made to voters there in the 2018 general election, which he claimed he was unable to contest due to a “conspiracy”.

Ahead of GE14, Chua was fined RM2,000 for his conviction of insulting a policeman, disqualifying him as the Batu MP and preventing him from standing for election in GE14

PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim subsequently said Chua automatically lost his membership for opting to run against the PH coalition’s choice candidate P. Prabakaran, who is also the incumbent.

Yesterday, Chua apologised to Anwar, but gave no sign that he would withdraw.

Dr Lee today said that Chua should not only apologise to Anwar, but also all the voters in Batu as well as Malaysians who supported the Reformasi movement since 1999.

When asked if Chua’s decision was selfish, Dr Lee said that he will leave the judgment to the public.

“He should look at the bigger picture and put the rakyat first rather than his own agenda,” he said.