DAP has hit back at an MCA leader's claim that Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng was a racist for advising Chinese schools not to subscribe to Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian .

NONE In a statement today, Lim's special officer Zairil Khir Johari said Penang MCA secretary Lau Chiek Tuan had ignored the fact that Lim had urged the schools to subscribe to Sinar Harian , which the chief minister deemed as more objective.

"In any case, the chief minister's original remarks of supporting Sinar Harian instead of Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian were made in jest and never meant to be a threat in the first place.

"It is the MCA that is politicising the issue by twisting his original statement to paint the chief minister as a political opportunist and a racist.

NONE "What is really inexplicable is the fact that the MCA would even deign to support Berita Harian and Utusan Malaysia , especially when the latter is well-known to adopt a racist and often malicious line of reporting," said Zairil ( left ).

Yesterday, Lau said Lim's "threat" to Chinese schools, although it was clear that it was a joke, was inappropriate and against racial unity.

“By making such a threat, especially when it involves education, it shows that DAP is willing to politicise anything for its own benefits,” Lau said.

Lim had made the joke during a speech when he handed out funds to 84 Chinese schools on April 7.

“Schools commonly subscribe to newspapers in order to improve their students' vocabulary in a language.

By stopping Chinese schools from subscribing to these papers, the students may end up without a strong foothold in the national language,” he said.