UNITED Rights of Malaysian Party (Urimai) interim council chairman Prof Ramasamy Palanisamy cannot refrain from playing the role of instigator when he mooted the idea of DAP vice-chairman Nga Kor Ming challenging feisty UMNO Youth chief Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh for a debate over implications of boycott campaigns on the Malaysia economy.

This is despite the Merlimau state assemblyman still owing the former DAP stalwart’s newly found party a deserving debate over the status of vernacular schools in the country.

The purported debate has been overshadowed by Akmal’s over-engagement in his blanket boycott drive of KK Super Mart following the eruption of the Allah inscription on socks controversy.

“Since Akmal has called Nga ‘dumb’, I hope the latter can challenge him for a debate on the topic of the implications of the boycott on the economy,” former Penang chief minister II Ramasamy penned on his Facebook page.

“I hope that Nga doesn’t behave like the proverbial tortoise, withdrawing its head and legs under circumstance of tension and crises.”

Moreover, the former three-term Perai state assemblyman reckoned that the Housing and Local Government Minister and Teluk Intan MP could seize the moment “to shed some of the MCA attributes” accorded to DAP by challenging Akmal who is also the Melaka state executive councillor in-charge of rural development, agriculture and food security for a debate.

“If Akmal performs badly, then Nga can call him ‘stupid’. But is Nga prepared to take on the “paper tiger” Akmal?” wondered Ramasamy.

Meanwhile, DAP Socialist Youth (DAPSY) national chief Dr Kelvin Yii Lee Wuen has urged his UMNO Youth counterpart against “perpetuating old politics” but to show political maturity by not resorting to “name calling” even if he disagrees with the view of a minister in the unity government in which UMNO is part of it.

“As a young leader, he should have brought proper and mature arguments to the table by either refuting the statement or to add constructive criticism to the issue at hand,” asserted the Bandar Kuching MP.

“Argue policy with policy, proposals with better proposals, discourse with mature discourse. Only then our politics can mature and really add value to our society. Our politics cannot merely be reduced to name-calling or mud-slinging by degrading the current state of our political discourse to where it is now.”

Added Yii who like Akmal are both Russia-trained medical doctors: “That should be the aspiration of all young leaders in our country as we push for a more mature democracy and mature politics to replace old politics of old that does not add value to the society.” - April 13, 2024

https://focusmalaysia.my/ramasamy-wants-nga-to-challenge-paper-tiger-akmal-to-a-debate-over-economic-effect-of-boycott-exercise/