JOHOR BARU: MCA continues to challenge Lim Guan Eng to debate on a Chinese school issue here before his tenure as the DAP secretary-general is up on March 20.

       Earlier, the debate between him and MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong, which was initially slated for yesterday afternoon, was called off after police did not give the green light.

       The event was supposed to have taken place at the Johor Baru Tiong Hua Association hall.

       A letter, signed by Johor MCA secretary Datuk Ng Keng Heng, was sent yesterday to inform Lim about the cancellation.

       Ng said Johor MCA had the responsibility to inform him of the police decision although Lim had not responded about his participation.

       “We hope you can make yourself available for a future debate with our party president before the end of your tenure as DAP secretary-general on March 20.

       “A debate between both parties’ top guns will be in line with your ‘political hierarchy’ concept,” he said in the letter that included a copy of the police response.

       It is understood that the DAP headquarters had acknowledged receiving the letter.

       On March 1, Dr Wee challenged Lim to the debate over his claims that the former did not contribute as much as him towards the construction of SJK (C) Kuek Ho Yao in Seri Austin here.

       Lim had allegedly made the claim at a ceramah.

       Meanwhile, Johor police chief Comm Datuk Kamarul Zaman Mamat said the debate was cancelled as it could lead to public unrest.

       He said the parties should find other ways to discuss the matter.

       “The decision was made after discussing it with my senior officers. The police view that this programme could lead to public unrest in Johor.

       “Only ceramah are allowed and those who apply for a ceramah permit will be approved and facilitated by the police, except for those that were rejected to safeguard the well-being of the people in Johor,” he told reporters yesterday.

       Comm Kamarul Zaman explained that some of the reasons why a ceramah permit request could be rejected were due to the close proximity of two opposing political parties.

       “So for this case, they applied for a face-to-face debate, which we did not approve,” he said.

       “The current condition for campaigning is already good. Everything is calm and under control, so we do not want an incident to be a spark that could lead to instability and disrupt the campaign period.”

       He also said that between Feb 26 and March 6, a total of 1,411 ceramah permits had been approved, with six appeals having been rejected, including the permit for the debate.

       Despite the cancellation of the debate, Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching still showed up at the building at 1.50pm yesterday.

       She told reporters she found out the night before that the debate had been cancelled.

       “Though the debate was directed at Lim, he wanted to give me the opportunity to engage in a debate with Dr Wee because of my knowledge about the issue,” said Teo, who is the former deputy education minister.