‘My husband is no Chua Soi Lek’

 

KUALA LUMPUR, July 7 — Betty Chew came out today in full defence of her husband, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, declaring he never had an affair with his former aide and that she never assaulted the woman as claimed.

“My husband is right, he is no Chua Soi Lek,” she said in a statement here, repeating Lim’s words when the allegations first hit media headlines.

Chew, an assemblyman in Malacca, called on the MCA president to stop his party members from spreading the “cruel lies”, reminding him of the sex scandal that saw him fall from grace in 2008.

“You have family, too,” she reminded Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek. “I am sure your family must have gone through hard times when you admitted publicly about your affair and resigned as minister.

“Don’t make another family to go through the same way, and more so when there is no truth to the lies spread,” she said.

Dr Chua, a former health minister, was secretly filmed having sex in a hotel with his lover in 2007 and forced to resign from all his government and political positions ahead of Election 2008 after video recordings of his trysts were publicly leaked.

Today, Chew also appealed to Dr Chua’s wife, Datin Seri Wong Sek Hin, to convince her husband to stop the allegations, claiming that Malaysians would not appreciate her husband’s inaction over the “cruelty”.

“She may have forgiven her husband’s previous cruelty towards her, but she should advise her husband that all Malaysian women would never forgive Dr Chua for allowing MCA to continue such cruel lies on an innocent woman and her family,” she said.

Both Chew and Lim recently found themselves the target after Malacca MCA chief Datuk Gan Tian Loo accused Lim during the Malacca state assembly sitting of having an affair with an aide.

The Malacca lawmaker had also demanded the DAP secretary-general’s wife, Chew, reply to allegations that she had beaten up the woman, resulting in the latter’s transfer out of the Penang CM’s office.

Lim has denied both the affair and assault, labelling it a Barisan Nasional smear campaign against him ahead of national polls due within a year.

He also took a swipe at MCA for spearheading the campaign, reminding the party of Dr Chua’s scandal in 2008, which has been partly blamed for the party’s dismal losses in Election 2008.

“I have no close or secret relationship with my former staff. My wife has never assaulted me or anyone in her life.
“Let MCA repeat their allegations publicly so that my wife and [I] can prove in court that, ‘Lim Guan Eng is not Chua Soi Lek!’, he had said in a statement.

In response, Dr Chua came out to praise himself for having the courage to admit fault and resign from all his political posts in 2008 when his scandal came to light.

“It is indeed that Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng is not like me because I have the courage and political moral (sic) to be responsible and bear the consequences.

“Will Lim Guan Eng have the courage like me to admit fault, apologise and resign from my ministerial post as well as all my positions in the party?” he had said in a statement.

But Chew said today that Dr Chua’s remarks and apparent dismissal of the allegations as Lim’s problem to bear, were disappointing.

She insisted that her husband has no wrong to admit to, adding that they both feared the repercussions such allegations would have on the lives of their children.

“How can this be my husband’s problem when these were lies spread by MCA? My husband did not have an affair with his former staff and I had repeatedly said I had never argued with her or assaulted her or anyone for that matter,” she said.

Pointing out that no one has yet furnished proof to confirm Gan’s allegations, Chew asked Dr Chua to direct the MCA leader to repeat his words outside the Malacca state assembly.

She also called Gan a “coward” for hiding behind his lawmaker’s immunity.

“I can only sue Gan if he says it outside the Dewan. Gan is trying to run away from responsibility after defaming me and my husband. Is this MCA style of politicking?” she asked.

“I have already warned Gan in the [assembly] that if he has no guts to repeat outside what he said [inside],  he will forever  be seen as ‘the rat running across the street’ by the community.”