Nazri slams Gerakan’s ‘Punjabi boy’ Patrick Lee

Baljit Singh comes under fire from the minister over his call for Najib and his Cabinet to prove their moral standards.

KUALA LUMPUR: Gerakan leader Baljit Singh has drawn flak for calling on Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his Cabinet to take individual religious vows to prove that they are of impeccable moral standing.

Rubbishing the call, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz said Barisan Nasional leaders were not speaking from a moral high ground.

“Tell this Punjabi boy, where is he coming from? Is he from BN or is he from the opposition?” he told FMT yesterday.

On Wednesday, Baljit, who heads Penang Gerakan’s legal and human rights bureau, said BN leaders must take the vow to prove that they were better than Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim.

The vocal BN leader was responding to the latest sex video scandal which implicated Anwar, and had told the latter’s detractors that “he who has not sinned, shall cast the first stone”.

However, Nazri, in taking a swipe at Anwar, said those who wished to become prime minister must have high moral standards.

“I don’t talk about morality. We don’t preach. We don’t aspire to be prime minister. Those who aspire to be PM must show high morals.

“Why should we take a vow of morality when we have done nothing wrong? We are not saying we are angelic or anything like that. It is about the (sex) video. I don’t have a video, so why should I take a vow?” he said.

The minister added that the call to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) would not have arose if the opposition did not jump to conclusions and blame BN for the video.

“Had they not blamed us, we won’t be called to make such statements or to call for a RCI,” he said.

The minister also launched a broadside on Baljit for slamming Nazri for stating that Anwar’s wife and PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was not the right person to identify the man in the video.

“If this Punjabi is smart enough, he should realise that there is a conflict of interest (involving Anwar and Wan Azizah).

“Any ordinary person will understand that if you have a conflict of interest, you cannot be a party to investigate your husband’s identity. She is his wife, and this is the conflict,” he said.

In taking Nazri to task over this, Baljit had previously asked if Nazri knew Anwar’s body better than Wan Azizah.

Also read:

Prove your saintliness, Gerakan man tells Najib & Co

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