MCA president Chua Soi Lek’s attempts at “clawing back” Chinese support has led to Umno upping the ante on “demonising the Chinese community”, said DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.

NONE Lim ( left ) blamed Chua squarely as the “culprit” in inciting Umno leaders to “jump in with the twin racist strategy of threatening the Chinese community with losing representation in government, whilst inviting PAS to join UMNO in BN to form a grand coalition of racist and extremist Malays”.

In a statement today, he condemned MCA’s “reckless and desperate racial politics” that had given Umno licence to launch into its racist diatribes, following the ruling coalition’s losses during the recent Sarawak election.

Lim said MCA’s threats that not voting for them would reduce Chinese representation in government was baseless, as “the winning MCA elected representatives will not be beholden o the people but beholden to Umno”.

            

“What is the point then of electing wakil rakyat’s who neither listen to the people nor do the people’s work but will only listen to UMNO and do UMNO’s dirty work of corruption and abuse of power.

“What hope is there for Malaysians, if BN, UMNO and MCA are allowed to continue to steal our children’s future?” said Lim, who is also Penang chief minister.

Lim added that Najib’s call to PAS to abandon Pakatan was a ploy to “pit the Malays against the non-Malays”.

“Chua should not to be a sore loser by playing into Umno’s racial politics but instead respect the verdict of the Sarawak people,” said Lim.

‘PAS knows better’

Meanwhile DAP national chairperson Karpal Singh said Najib’s “desperate” call to PAS only revealed the BN’s attempts to “shore up support for a coalition that has lost the confidence of the people”.

NONE The Bukit Gelugor MP ( right ) said PAS’ outright rejection of the PM’s call showed that the opposition coalition was “united and prepared to face the coming general election”.

“Nik Aziz is right. PAS, which had joined the BN in 1971, only to leave it after learning a bitter lesson, cannot be enticed easily once again to make the same mistake,” said Karpal in a statement.

“PAS’s commitment to Pakatan has afforded the country an opportunity to have a two-party system.”

He added that PAS’ partnership with DAP in the coalition has not done less for Islam than Umno has, saying there was no contradiction between DAP’s multiculturalism and respecting the position of Islam as guaranteed in the federal constitution.

hindraf to palace 250408 n surendran PKR vice president N Surendran ( left ) in a separate statement also slammed the PM for his recent comments on the issue.

“Najib has shown that he has no respect for the right of Malaysians to vote freely for the political party of their choice.

“Unable to win over Chinese voters by persuasive argument or by just policies, he now resorts to open threats and intimidation. Najib displays the traditional BN reliance on unfair and underhand methods when faced with defeat or loss of public support,” said Surendran.

“Najib's statement is evidence of racial politicking of the worst kind,” he said.

The party VP said Chua’s silence in the face of Najib’s “outrageous threat to our democratic values” was precisely the reason Chinese voters had given up on the Chinese party.

“MCA and its leaders simply have no courage or moral backbone. Tested time and time again, they have invariably fallen beneath the level of events,” said Surendran.