Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang said that he was realistic enough not to expect to be prime minister one day nor did he expect to see a non-Malay becoming one in his lifetime.

Lim was answering a question from a malaysiakini reader in a question-and-answer forum, who asked about the five most important tasks he would do for the nation if he was the prime minister.

He also lamented that his recent reminder that the federal constitution did not specify that the prime minister's post be restricted to Malaysians of a certain race and religion had been turned into a political issue.

"In the recent Parliament, my reminder and reiteration that under the Malaysian Constitution, the post of PM is open to all Malaysians regardless of race or religion although the political reality would only see a Malay becoming a PM in Malaysia, attracted fire and brimstone from certain Umno quarters," he said.

He was referring to the speech where he lambasted the ruling Barisan Nasional for declaring Malaysia an Islamic state.

His speech was prominently reported in the Malay dailies and this drew warnings from Umno leaders such as Youth chief Hishammuddin Hussein for Lim to "not to play with fire".

Lim had accused Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia for twisting and distorting his comments in Parliament.

"The DAP has often been accused of being an opposition party which is content to be an opposition and does not want to come to power," said the veteran politician.

However, he said that for a political party to reject all intentions of coming to power, or being part of a government, would be a contradiction since it defeats the reason for its existence.

"This is because there is no more effective way to realise a party's political objectives or programme than to come to power or be a part of government," he added.

Nevertheless, Lim said that the DAP would not compromises its principles for it to join the ruling coalition.

"DAP is definitely not a party which is so enamoured by its decades in opposition that it does not want to become part of government - except DAP is not prepared to come to power or be part of government just for the sake of sharing the spoils of office."

Potshots at rivals

He also took potshots at rival parties, MCA and Gerakan, both members of the ruling coalition.

"There are political parties which are formed with the sole objective of getting into the Barisan Nasional coalition, regardless of the cost and price.

"If DAP leaders are similarly minded, and their yardstick of political success is whether they are ministers or not, many MCA and Gerakan ministers in the past quarter of a century would not have the opportunity to serve in the cabinet," said the opposition leader who has been in politics for over three decades.

Lim also said that his party prefers to be "realistic and down-to-earth" about its electoral chances rather than indulging in "flights-of-fancy".

"There have been opposition parties which have not been shy of declaring as their election objective the formation of the national government by toppling the Barisan Nasional from power, although they had never won a single seat in Parliament," he said.

While he did not name the parties he mentioned, Lim was most likely be referring to Parti Rakyat Malaysia, which has recently merged with another opposition party, Keadilan.

DAP won 12 of the 219 parliamentary seats in the March 21 general elections, while Keadilan bagged one.

In the Q&A, Lim also conceded that the DAP has problems being perceived as "Chinese, anti-professional, authoritarian" party, which he blamed the government-controlled mainstream media.

"In my decades in politics, I had at one time or another been accused of being anti-Malay, anti-Indian, anti-Chinese educated Chinese, anti-English educated Chinese, anti-Islam, a stooge of Special Branch, CIA, KGB, Australian secret service, etc."

Do you have more questions for Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang? Please send them to editor@malaysiakini.com .