Higher Education Minister Mustapa Mohamad must immediately withdraw the offending University Putra Malaysia (UPM) textbook on ethnic relations, said Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang.

In a press statement today, he slammed the minister for defending the "half-truths, untruths and the generally biased, tendentious and divisive accounts" in the textbook.

Lim said these were not historic facts , as claimed by the minister, but 'historic lies".

"Mustapha must decide whether as higher education minister, he wants to be remembered as an Umno politician prepared to brainwash university students with Umno propaganda, half-truths and lies or as a politician who made the greatest contribution in restoring Malaysian universities to previous world-class standards?" he asked.

The opposition leader warned that if Mustapa chose the former than he would fail as a higher education minister.

He noted that using the textbook will not only polarise students in universities but the larger Malaysian society as well.

"Instead of promoting ethnic relations, Mustapa will be aggravating racial polarisation in the country one year before the nation celebrates its half-century of nationhood," he said.

For this reason, he said the minister must act 'boldly and decisively' by directing the immediate withdrawal of the textbook.

If the minister failed to act, Lim urged the cabinet to intervene and override the minister on this matter.

Authors slammed

On the same note, he commended Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz for denouncing the contents of the book as seditious.

Lim also lashed out at the authors of the book Jayum Jawan and Zaid Ahmad and described them as a 'shame to the Malaysian academic community'.

This demonstrates that lecturers themselves should be immersed and educated in a proper and balanced course in ethnic relations, he added.

The book ruffled feathers for among others referring to the call for a non-discriminatory affirmative action policy by the Malaysian Chinese Election Appeals Committee (Suqiu) as 'extremist'.

It also blamed the anti-social attitude of Indian youths as one of the contributing factors to the Kg Medan clash in 2001 and DAP for the May 13, 1969 racial riots.