Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin had apparently told the BN Youth council meeting yesterday that while he could follow Lee Kuan Yew's example in making a public apology, it would amount to a "dishonest act".

According to sources who were at the meeting, Khairy had said that an apology required "sincerity for it to work'.

Yesterday, Singapore's Mentor Minister Lee Kuan Yew said he was sorry for saying that Chinese Malaysians were marginalised but went on to point out specific incidents where Malaysian leaders attacked the island state for mistreating its Malay minority.

At the BN Youth council meeting, both MCA and Gerakan youth leaders had pressed for Khairy to apologise for stating that Chinese Malaysians would seek to exploit a weak Umno.

However, the meeting failed to extract an apology from the Umno deputy youth leader.

Khairy, who is the son-in-law of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, had told the congregation of youth leaders that it was not possible for him to have malicious intent towards the Chinese community as his closest friend is a Chinese.

He blamed the media for misconstruing his statement. According to him, he had made an hour-long speech at the Umno division meeting in August and yet the media "played up" the few minutes in which he made references to the Chinese community.

Khairy lamented that other people had also previously spoke on the same matter but these were ignored by the media. He argued that an unwarranted apology would have prolonged the controversy.

Three items on the agenda

According to the sources, there were three key items on the agenda of yesterday's meeting:

  • Lee Kuan Yew's remark that the Chinese in Malaysia were being marginalised and his subsequent apology.

  • Deputy Higher Education Minister Ong Tee Kiat's allegations of misappropriation in the school repair funds for vernacular schools.

  • Khairy's remarks which a number of Chinese-based BN components have described as being racist.

    • The Khairy issue took up a large portion of the three-and-a-half-hour meeting.

    Also present at the meeting were MCA youth chief Liow Tiong Lai, Gerakan youth chief Mah Siew Keong, MCA youth secretary-general Dr Wee Ka Siong, Gerakan deputy youth chief Lim Si Pin and Gerakan youth secretary-general Ho Siew Ho.

    At the outset of the meeting, Umno Youth chief and BN Youth chairman Hishammuddin Hussein told his BN colleagues that Khairy had already briefed him on the matter and stated that he was "satisfied with Khairy's explanation".

    Hishammuddin then gave the floor to the other leaders to voice their opinions, after which Khairy responded at length.

    "It is important to look at things in totality," Khairy had at one point told the meeting. He repeatedly stressed that he had been "quoted out of context".

    Sources confirmed that both MCA and Gerakan leaders had voiced the stand of their respective parties relating to the Khairy issue, including the request that the Umno Youth No 2 made a public apology.

    At the end of the meeting, most however accepted Khairy's explanation.

    One source said: "I got the feeling that the leaders were impressed with the way Khairy explained himself."

    He added that the youth leaders at the meeting believed that the same could have happened to them some day.

    Taking that into consideration, Hishammuddin advised his colleagues to be more cautious with their comments, which was unanimously agreed on.

    However, representatives from MCA and Gerakan nevertheless warned that they "cannot guarantee their members will accept Khairy's explanation".

    Hishammuddin responded that should this be the case, then the issue can be brought up for discussion at the next BN Youth meeting.

    No apology to Ong

    Meanwhile, on the issue of misappropriation of school funds which was disclosed by MCA leader Ong, who later got into a public spat with Education Minister Hishammuddin over the matter, the latter insisted that it was necessary for the cabinet to reprimand Ong.

    The special government fund for the repair and upgrading of schools was set up last year after a teacher died when he fell through loose floorboards in a Kedah school.

    The fund has been earmarked for both vernacular schools and national schools.

    Hishammuddin told those present that his ministry has thousands of staff, and it was not possible to keep an eye on all of them to ensure that they do a proper job.

    He said it was not fair for Ong to specifically pick two Chinese schools in his complaint and to publicly criticise another ministry.

    According to Hishammuddin, it was crucial that when there were problems, they must be dealt with quickly, instead of turning them into a racial issue.

    After the cabinet meeting last month, Higher Education Minister Mustapa Mohamed apologised to the education minister on behalf of Ong.

    However, the Works Ministry has last week confirmed that there were indeed irregularities in the payments made to the contractor which was hired to do the repair job in one of the schools.

    It found that RM30,000 was paid out by the government for a job which cost only RM3,000.