Speaking to reporters here Wednesday, Chiew felt that the debate should be held in the final week of February and gave Tiong 72 hours to reply to his challenge.

"I am proposing that a moderator shall be invited to coordinate the debate and it can be any suitable individual mutually agreed upon, or from our radio station, RTM 1, RTM 2 or TV3, eventhough it (TV3) is still not here yet," he said as he read a prepared statement.

He added Democratic Action Party (DAP) to which he is the State Deputy Chairman fully agreed to a recent remark made by the Election Commission chairman for the people to be given more chance to hear open debates.

"I hope that Dato Seri Tiong King Sing can accept this challenge and become the forerunner of the Barisan Nasional to champion the call of the Election Commission," he added.

The four languages namely Chinese, Bahasa Malaysia, Iban and English were all necessary to be used in the open debate as Chiew felt that Bintulu had been "so multiracially represented," giving the different races a chance to hear out from the politicians concerned.

"This would then allowed the people of Bintulu to better judge the issue on hand," said Chiew who also felt that the most fitting topic for the debate would be "What can Dato Seri Tiong King Sing do for the people of Bintulu now and in the future?"

According to Chiew, Tiong's recent press statement had twisted the role of the opposition in the parliamentary democracy where the latter questioned what had the opposition actually done for the floods in rural Bintulu, while accusing the opposition of inciting and misleading the people.

"Let me turn around and ask, what can and had Dato Seri Tiong King Sing do and done for the people of Bintulu yesterday, today and tomorrow? And where is TV3?" remarked Chiew.

Chiew who was elected to the Parliament after defeating Datuk Amar James Wong Kim Min in the 1995 election lost to Tiong in the 1999 election.

When asked whether the open challenge confirmed that he would be standing in the upcoming parliamentary election, he replied: "I would not know yet, as our party will be sitting for a meeting next month to decide the matter."