Allegations that DAP is out to set up a Christian state are BN and Umno lies born out of desperation to ensure that the coalition and Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak survive the looming general election, DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang charged.

He said those who disseminate it are, "reckless about its damage to the process of nation-building in multi-racial and multi-religious Malaysia (and) qualify to be condemned as the vilest and most despicable traitors to the vision of a united and harmonious Malaysian nation."

NONE In a statement issued today, Lim also said only "fools or knaves, or both" would believe the allegations for several reasons.

He said that neither DAP leaders nor its policy documents had ever made the call for a Christian state since Merdeka Day.

Instead, he said the party's stand had been consistent with that of the first three prime ministers throughout its 46-year history, which is, "Malaysia is a democratic, multi-racial, secular and multi-religious nation with Islam as the official religion but Malaysia is not an Islamic state."

Arithmetic just doesn't add up

Lim also stressed that by "secular", DAP does not mean being anti-religion, but "a state polity which is morality-based and pro-Islam, pro-Christianity, pro-Buddhism, pro-Hinduism and pro-Sikkhism in defending and enhancing the multi-religious characteristics and diversity of the Malaysian nation."

In addition, he pointed out that Christians make up only 9.1 percent of the population, and only 35 out of 222 MPs are Christians.

"...about one-sixth of the total Parliamentary strength - a far cry from the two-thirds of 148 MPs out of a total of 222 MPs required to amend the Federal Constitution to establish a Christian state," the Ipoh Timur MP noted.

He added that Malaysian voters must show that they won't be fooled by the false allegations in the next polls to put Malaysians "on the right footing in nation building".

The allegation the DAP is attempting to establish a Christian State had been raised from time to time, particularly by right-wing Malay NGOs and the daily Utusan Malaysia .

NONE Of late, former PAS deputy president Nasharuddin Mat Isa - widely regarded as a party renegade - had alleged that DAP held a thanksgiving event after the Sarawak state election last year, where it prayed for a Christian state.

Catholic Bishops' Conference of Malaysia president Dr Paul Tan Chee Ing has decried Nasharuddin's allegations as "another dispiriting demonstration of Goebbels' dictum that a lie incessantly repeated will, finally, savour of the truth."