DAP lawmaker Tony Pua urged Bentong voters to ditch their incumbent MP and MCA president Liow Tiong Lai for failing to take Prime Minister Najib Razak to task over the 1MDB scandal in a ceramah last night.

“The whole world knows about 1Malaysia Development Bhd but Liow doesn’t.

“Did the people elect him to be a yes-man? To just shake hands with people on the streets and give them angpows while the billions of ringgit of people’s money have been stolen? 

“Why do we need this sort of minister?” asked Pua to loud applause from the few hundred people who braved the rain to attend Pakatan Harapan’s first ceramah in Bentong town.

Liow is the transport minister.

Pua, the national publicity secretary and Petaling Jaya Utara MP, said the US$250 million (RM1.1 billion) allegedly siphoned off from the state investment fund headed by Najib to buy a luxury yacht could have been used to turn the Karak highway toll-free.

“If Pakatan Harapan wins the elections, we can sell the yacht and remove (the) Karak highway toll. Would you want that?”

Pua was among the DAP top guns who kick-started the opposition’s campaign to unseat Liow in Bentong yesterday.

The attentive crowd lapped up his presentation on how US$681 million from 1MDB ended up in Najib’s accounts and its funds used to purchase luxury yacht and paintings.

Liow retained Bentong by a slim margin of 379 votes in 2013.

There are four state seats under Bentong, a mixed seat of 45% Malays, Chinese (44%) and Indian (9%) voters. 

DAP won three of the state seats while Umno retained one (Pelangai) in 2013. 

Pelangai is held by Pahang Menteri Besar Adnan Yaakob, who first won the seat in 1986. – January 29, 2018.