Elderly man pushed off stage suffers fractured ribs

YONG PENG: The 77-year-old man who was pushed off the stage by a Pakatan Harapan supporter during an MCA ceramah on Monday night suffered fractured ribs and has been hospitalised.

But the elderly man had Ayer Hitam incumbent MP Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong beside him at the hospital till the wee hours of yesterday,

Dr Wee said Tan Hong Hi@Ting Hong Hi was rushed to Klinik Kesihatan Yong Peng when he felt sharp a pain below his chest as he was lodging a report at the police station here.

“From the clinic, Tan was rushed to Sultanah Nora Ismail Hospital in Batu Pahat.

“An X- ray showed a fracture on his ribs,” said Dr Wee who was with Tan and his family in the hospital until 2am yesterday.

He said Tan was still in the hospital for observation as of yesterday.

On Monday night when the incident took place, Dr Wee was speaking before the stage.

He said the attacker did not even heed police warnings for him to stop assaulting the old man. He said the attacker has since been detained by the police.

At a press conference here yesterday, Dr Wee said there was absolutely no reason to be rough, especially pushing an elderly man off the stage and endangering his life.

It was a Barisan ceramah, Dr Wee said, and Tan was removing the Pakatan Harapan flags put up on the stage.

The stage, he said, is managed by the Yong Peng New Village committee.

He urged the public to verify the facts before condemning Tan for taking down Pakatan Harapan's flags.

Dr Wee, who was scheduled to speak at an Ayer Hitam MCA division-organised event at Yong Peng Street that night, decided not to speak from the stage after he saw PKR flags on the stage area where there had been none before.

“Yong Peng Street is a project started and managed by the Yong Peng New Village’s Village Security and Development Committee, it is not a public space, as what some netizens and cybertroopers have alleged,” said Dr Wee.

Meanwhile, DAP candidate Liew Chin Tong apologised to Tan and his family in a Facebook statement, and wished Tan a speedy recovery.

The Johor DAP chairman said accusations and videos spreading online did not help the situation and would only worsen relationships within the community.