The war of words between Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin and DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang continued today over the issue of controversial artist Namewee .

Khairy dismissed what he called the elder politician's weak defence of Namewee (real name Wee Meng Chee) when Lim had challenged Khairy to "surrender" himself over his alleged racist remarks.

"First of all, I contest that I was racist," said Khairy, who is also Rembau MP.

"Secondly, if we're looking at his bare statements, he is saying ‘you were racist as well, so don't say anything about Namewee'. So taking that statement at face value, if somebody was racist before, it's okay for someone else to be racist.

"It's stunning. What he's essentially saying is that two wrongs make a right," said Khairy.

NONE Speaking to Malaysiakini, Khairy ( left ) also rubbished Lim's allegations of purported "racist remarks" that he had made in the past.

Lim had previously cited Khairy's "uncalled-for attack on the Indian community during a live telecast at the Umno general assembly in November 2007" and his "infamous outburst about the so-called marginalisation of Malays in Penang under Koh Tsu Koon as Penang Chief Minister" in a statement.

Explaining his stand, Khairy insisted that there was nothing racist in his remarks and that they have been taken out of context.

"About Malays in Penang , that was directed at the state government, not the Chinese people. There is an impression that Malays are marginalised from economic development and there's empirical data to prove that.

That was directed at the BN state government, which even had Umno members in it. So I don't know what part of that was racist," he said.

"And secondly, he took the example of me giving a speech during the Umno general assembly about Indian news vendors which he said was racist. Because one day during the assembly was Deepavali and all the Indian news vendors were on holiday so we couldn't get the papers. And somehow I was accused of blaming them for being on holiday.

"I was speaking during a motion on the economy. I was saying, that one of the New Economic Policy's goals is to end economic identification with a certain race...

"So we have failed in trying to restructure society in certain sectors in  the economy, like today where paper vendors happen to be Indians. That's why we can't get papers today.

"I'm not saying ‘screw them, we can't get our papers today'. It was obviously taken out of context and that KJ's attacking Indians for being on holiday," he said.

‘Namewee has obviously crossed the line'

Khairy also stood by his earlier statement that the particular line which reads "You tak baca? Siapa buat Malaysia kaya?" (You haven't read? Who made Malaysia prosperous?) in Namewee's latest video was deliberately out to incite racial hatred.

"Of course it was offensive, implying that we don't have any contribution at all," said Khairy.

namewee go to ttdi police station 310810 03 "It is not what Lim said, that it could mean all people are involved in making Malaysia rich. If you ask 10 Malaysians what they thought Namewee meant by that statement, they'd say that there is an obvious undertone which is suggestive.

"Kit Siang tried to Houdini himself out of this and this time, it was disingenuous," he said.

“Some have said that Namewee is tasteless, rude, has bad choice of lyrics or celupar .

"Some said he went beyond that line. He didn't flirt with being racially offensive, he was beyond the line at being racially offensive," said Khairy.

In Wee's latest outing as a filmmaker/rapper, he had produced a three-minute video titled "Nah" which had criticised a school principal who was alleged to have made racial slurs against her students in a secondary school in Johor.

VIDEO | 9.52 mins