Chin comes to the defence of Tnay over remarks

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KUCHING: SUPP president Datuk Seri Peter Chin has come to the defence of the party’s Women chief Amy Tnay Li Ping, who was vilified by netizens when part of her speech at the party’s ceramah was posted in the internet.

Her opinions on overseas voters coming back to the state to vote raised a storm of protests in cyberspace.

Chin said Tnay’s remarks were purely her personal view and she was entitled to her opinions during a ‘ceramah’ in a democratic society.

He stressed that what she said should not be regarded as the official stand of the party.

“It was a long speech and she was not referring to every overseas Malaysian voter. In fact, she was only referring to those living outside the country but are only coming back to vote for the opposition.

“Of course, we are not insulting the intelligence of the overseas voters at all and certainly the remarks did not come from our party so it was not our official view,” Chin told reporters at a luncheon with the media at Hilton Kuching here yesterday.

“Li Ping like any other people has got her own point of view when conducting ceramah but we are not saying that all voters from overseas are wrong, opposition minded and doing a disfavour for our society,” he said.

Therefore, Chin stated that it was wrong for the people to judge political stand of the party, Tnay or even BN Bandar Kuching candidate Tan Kai’s political view based on a small segment of the video.

“However, in certain scenario, making a comment on certain people who are very opposition minded is not entirely wrong,” Chin said.

Chin believed that the incident was purposely played up by certain parties and he appealed for less condemnation during the campaigning period to allow people to express their opinions.

He stated that Tnay’s way of campaigning could not be considered harsh if compared to certain personalities in DAP.

At a press conference on Monday, Tnay clarified that she meant to remind young people not to just come home to vote for the sake of change without thinking of the implications.

“I’m glad that many young people are coming back to vote but do they really understand the political situation when they are away from home for a long time? I was just telling people what I saw as truth and stated my stand. That’s my responsibility as a speaker,” she said.

Tnay apologised if her remarks had hurt the feelings of some people.