Lim-Chua debate: Whose policies will benefit the country more?

At a press conference held on May 30, 2012 at the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (Asli) chief executive officer Michael Yeoh announced that the second debate between MCA president Chua Soi Lek and DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng will be held on July 8, 2012.

The debate known as ‘Debate 2.0: DAP and MCA: Whose Polices Benefit the Country More?’, will be held at the Sunway Pyramid Convention Centre.

The time allocated for the debate is two hours, that is from 2.30 pm to 4.30 pm.  The debate will be conducted in English.

The policies which will be discuss include education, healthcare, economic prosperity, community service, national unity, public welfare and poverty alleviation.

The rationale behind the choice of the topics is that as the election is just around the corner, the debaters will get to discuss their public policies and the public will get to see which party has better policies.

The debate will continue the series of public policy discussions that Asli had been promoting for a long time. Yeoh said that it is important because there a greater need to focus on public policy issues that are important to the country and to different communities.

He thinks that for politics in Malaysia to develop to a greater level we need to be able to debate on issues and public policy matters rather than be emotional and criticize personalities.

Half an hour will be given for a panel to post questions. Asli will then select a panel of three persons who are academicians or newspaper editors.  The panel will also be agreed upon by the debaters.

A question and answer session will be opened to the public.

According to Yeoh, the questions will have to be submitted earlier, and then representatives from both parties can select and ask the debaters. Or questions can be submitted on cards and posted to the debaters. Yeoh said this will prevent people from rushing to the microphone.

As the seating capacity for the convention hall is 1500, each party will be allocated about 400 to 500 seats each, the remaining 500 seats will be allocated to the public. Registration for the seats will be on a first come first basic. Registration is open from June 1, 2012, and the entrance fee for the public is priced at RM88 each.

Video by: Christine Leong, Citizen Journalists Malaysia