PETALING JAYA: Tony Pua has accused Barisan Nasional (BN) strategic communications deputy director Eric See-To of trying to fool the people by challenging him to a debate.
Mocking See-To on his lack of credentials, the Petaling Jaya Utara MP said there would be no point in having such a debate.
“For years you hid behind a pseudonym, ‘Lim Sian See’ to take potshots at Pakatan leaders because there’s no need to be accountable.
“Now, you are not a minister, deputy minister, MP or state assemblyman. So, you are a nobody in politics.
“Anything you say in a statement or in a debate, is completely deniable by your political bosses,” Pua said in a statement.
The DAP national publicity secretary issued the statement in response to See-To’s posting on Facebook yesterday that he was sad that Pua had called him a “nobody”.
Pua was reported to have called See-To as such after the latter said yesterday that he was willing to debate PKR’s Rafizi Ramli on the economy, but only on condition that Pua first agreed to debate him separately on the Penang undersea tunnel project.
The Pandan MP had thrown the debate challenge to See-To in August.
Pua criticised See-To for his lack of courage in wanting to debate Rafizi and trying to use him (Pua) as an excuse.
“The fact that you can’t give a straight answer to Rafizi’s debate challenge without dragging someone completely unrelated into some laughable condition reveals your insecurity and true colours.
“And because your political ego is so fragile, you wailed like a newborn crybaby,” Pua said.
In his FB post, See-To had also revealed how he had given Pua a large loan more than 10 years ago.
“Since he listed his company during the dot-com rush in 2001, Tony Pua’s CyberVillage had straight six years of continued losses from 2002 to 2007 until Tony Pua left the company and joined DAP.
“When his company got into some cash-flow issues in 2005 or 2006 before he went into politics, he called me for a loan for RM100,000 and within hours it was this ‘nobody’ who gave it to him – which he then gave me this IOU letter,” See-To said.
Pua did not deny the loan and explained the circumstances behind it and how it had been repaid.
“Yes, you kindly provided me with a RM100,000 10-day loan for my then-company when we faced problems with our own debtors some 12 years ago. The loan was also fully repaid 12 years ago.
“Thank you very much. But because of that, you are ‘somebody’? Because of that, you are terribly ‘hurt’? Don’t make me laugh,” he said.
Pua then took aim at See-To for his willingness to “swim with the sharks in BN”.
“You have decided that it is in your interest to publicly defend the kleptocratic leaders. You have thrown your lot with them. So man up to being spanked in public by your political adversaries.
“I have made it my mission to fight these crooks, and whoever stands by them, regardless of whether they were friends or even family. And I make no apologies for it,” Pua said, before asking See-To get BN strategic communications director Abdul Rahman Dahlan or any other minister to debate him instead.