By Ida Lim
KUALA LUMPUR, July 4 — Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek and Lim Guan Eng’s highly-anticipated second debate this Sunday afternoon will not be broadcast live, the organiser Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (Asli) said today.
The two-hour long debate between the MCA president and DAP secretary-general will only be aired at 11pm on Astro AEC and Astro Awani later in the day, with Chinese and Bahasa subtitles respectively.
However, Asli’s senior vice president Ng Yeen Seen denied censorship in the move, saying it was to “enable more people to see the debate as they’ll be at home at night”.
She also added that Sundays were often a “family day” and the public may be out doing sports during the debate which will take place from 2.30pm to 4.30 pm.
“Asli, with our recording team, will be uploading the debate to YouTube with maybe a 10-15 minute delay,” said Ng in a press conference today, adding that "it's not possible to have censorship in this era and we also don't encourage it".
The debate titled “BN and PR: Whose policies benefit the community more?” will touch on policy issues such as education, healthcare, economic prosperity and poverty alleviation.
Participants of the sold-out debate will be allowed to write down their questions on that day, which will be placed in a transparent ballot box to be 'drawn' by the debaters.
"Questions must be directed to both debaters," said Ng, adding that there will be "no pre-screening" of questions from the audience at the Sunway Pyramid Convention Centre at Selangor.
The first debate between Lim and the MCA president titled “Chinese at the crossroads: Is the two-party system becoming a two-race system?” was held on
February 18, a Saturday at 5pm, and broadcast live on Astro's Chinese channel, AEC, and subtitled in Bahasa Malaysia on Astro Awani.
Critics slammed the first debate as another Barisan Nasional-Pakatan Rakyat bashing session, after both Lim and Dr Chua took turns attacking each other’s coalitions.