DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said that his party must help dispel three myths about Pakatan Rakyat in order to win the next general election.

During his speech at the Perak DAP convention today, Lim said that the first myth was that Pakatan's policies would bankrupt the country.

"Our competent performance in the four Pakatan states clearly disproves this lie as no Pakatan states went bankrupt, instead recorded large surpluses," he said.

The second myth, said Lim, was MCA's oft-repeated claim that a victory for Pakatan would lead to an Islamic state while Umno claims that it would lead to a Christian state.

"This lie by MCA and Umno is self-contradictory. The clearest rebuttal is that there is no mention of an Islamic or a Christian state in the Pakatan common policy," said Lim.

NONE The final myth, said Lim, was claims that a large-scale racial riot in the vein of the May 13 incident would take place if Pakatan were to gain power.

Lim said such threats were aimed squarely at non-Malays despite the fact that regime change can only happen in Malaysia with the support of the Malay voters.

"The 2008 general elections show that Malaysian voters are mature and there were no racial incidents even though there was a change of state governments in five states.

"As the last three Bersih rallies have shown, the desire for clean elections have strong support from Malays who make up a majority of the peaceful demonstrators," he said.

There is hope

Lim said that despite the widespread stirring of racial sentiments by BN, he said two recent events has given the country hope that it can rise from its racial cocoon.

The first incident, said Lim, was Shila Amzah's triumphant outing at Asian Wave 2012, a regional singing competition.

Shila beat 12 other finalists from Asian countries at the competition to clinch the title, belting out tunes in three languages, including Mandarin, which endeared her to the Shanghai audience.

"Malaysians are proud that a Malay can beat other Chinese singers by singing a Chinese song in front of a Chinese audience.

"This shows the versatility and capability of Malays to compete at international levels," he said.

Lim said another noteworthy incident was the unexpected victory of Joko Widodo and running mate Basuki Tjahaja Purnama for the post of governor and vice-governor of Jakarta.

"What is unusual is that Basuki is a Christian Chinese. Basuki won the vice-governor post even though his opponent conducted a black campaign by using racial slurs against him.

"Clearly Indonesians ignored the racial slurs and voted on delivery and performance," he said.

Lim said that if a relatively poorer country can put aside racial considerations in favour of performance that can improve their standards of living, Malaysians can do better.

"I believe that Malaysians would choose a change to a new government that delivers on economic performance, prosperity for all and reversing the brain drain and reject an unchanged government that exploits race and religious extremist sentiments to hide its corruption and cronyism," he said.