MCA should rein in groups like Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) and Perkasa which make racially provocative statements instead of defending warning of the May 13 race riots by Umno leaders.

DAP Youth said this in reference to MCA Youth chief Chong Sin Woon who on Wednesday mocked DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang for "shivering" every time the topic of May 13 is raised.

Chong had said the race riot was a historical fact and Lim should be more constructive on the matter after the latter launched a broadside against Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin for a caution against the possible repeat of the tragic May 13, 1969 riots.

"If Chong ( left ) wants to see constructive politics as he professes, we challenge him and his colleagues in BN Youth to lobby  ministers to have the government set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to study and investigate the May 13 incident.

"(It will also) clear the names of quarters who are wrongly blamed for perpetrating the incident," DAP Youth secretary Tan Hong Pin and Youth committee member Mahdzir Ibrahim said in a joint statement today.

The duo said the spectre of May 13 was often raised as a propaganda to divide and rule the different communities in Malaysia rather than as a constructive discussion as claimed by Chong.

They added that in the process, DAP and Lim are also often falsely blamed for the racial riots, pointing out that the government had even sponsored a May 13 film which cast the party in bad light.

Lim had on Monday hit out at Muhyiddin as being unfit to be deputy prime minister for his May 13 warning as reported in Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia last Sunday.

Following this, Muhyiddin claimed his statement was manipulated , stating that he was merely issuing a reminder of what could happen if the races in Malaysia did not maintain harmony.

However, an unsatisfied Lim had pointed out that Muhyiddin in his statement also referred to Malays and Muslims being disrespected, thus specifically alluding to the non-Malay community.