DAP has offered legal aid to the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (SCAH) should the latter be sued by Works Minister S Samy Vellu.

"DAP offers its legal team to defend SCAH from any legal suit arising from its call on the minister to resign," DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said in a press statement today.

He said the party is appalled that Samy has threatened to sue SCAH for calling him to resign over the myriad and numerous failure of government infrastructure projects.

"SCAH is only exercising its democratic right to ask a minister to resign for the ministry's failings and Samy Vellu's refusal to be accountable," he said.

Lim stressed that Malaysians are angry that the minister could be so callous and irresponsible by saying that no one was at fault for the failures of the projects.

"How can there be no one at fault when government projects involving billions of ringgit fail? It will be a big surprise if there are no calls for Samy to resign over his irresponsible attitude," he said.

He was surprised that the minister dared not take on the DAP for requesting him to resign previously, but has instead picked on SCAH.

"DAP stresses that this call for Samy Vellu to resign is consistent with previous calls by DAP against MCA ministers who fail in their responsibilities to resign," Lim said.

Racial issue

Last week, SCAH said it will lobby for support from various groups nationwide in demanding Samy's resignation following similar calls made by Barisan Nasional and opposition politicians.

Samy later responded that he has engaged a lawyer to look into suing SCAH for defamation.

MIC Youth has questioned why SCAH has never called for any Chinese Malaysian minister to step down, and warned it to cancel its plan to seek public support or face a massive protest in retaliation

SCAH was however unfazed by Samy's threat, saying that it is prepared to face the minister in court.

Lim said he regretted that instead of looking at the issue from a national perspective, MIC has chosen to turn it into a racial issue.

"If every problem is turned into a racial problem and not from a Malaysian perspective solely on its merits, then Malaysians can never enjoy good governance because no incompetent officer can be removed on account that he is a Malay, Chinese, Indian, Dayak or Kadazan," he said.

PKR campaign

Meanwhile, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) will launch a banner campaign asking Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to sack Samy Vellu.

PKR vice- president Tian Chua said the party will display the first banner in Kuala Lumpur next Monday.

He added that if the displayed banner is taken down by the authorities, then PKR will put up more banners.

"If the banner is taken down, then we will put up10 banners, if 10 banners are taken down, then we will put 100 banners," he said when contacted.

He said putting up a banner is a civil right and those who do so should not be threatened with lawsuits.