The justification of MCA and Gerakan that the red shirt rally on Sept 16 was to be blamed on DAP’s provocation only proves the cowardice of the two BN parties in standing up to Umno’s racism, DAP leader Lim Kit Siang says.

“I thank Gerakan secretary-general Liang Teck Meng and MCA religious harmony bureau chairperson Ti Lian Ker for answering what had intrigued me for a month and vindicating my suspicion right from the beginning.

“(It is that) MCA and Gerakan are not only too cowardly to speak truth to power to inform Umno leaders that the Bersih 4 overnight rally had nothing to do with race or politics, but was a genuine grassroots demand from Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region, age, gender or politics, for good governance and clean, free, fair elections.

“But even worse, they instigated Umno elements to respond to the Bersih 4 rally in a racist and chauvinist manner... spreading the lie that DAP had hijacked and masterminded the (rally) to stage a Chinese ‘show-of-force’ to challenge Malay political authority,” Lim, the MP for Gelang Patah, said in a statement.

He was referring to the joint MCA-Gerakan press conference yesterday in which the two leaders demanded that DAP repents and be responsible for the political provocations that they alleged caused racial tension in the country, and thus “justifying the Sept 16 red shirt Malay rally”.

“If MCA and Gerakan dare not speak the truth that the Bersih 4 rally had nothing to do with race or politics... at least they should not be so opportunistic and irresponsible as to provoke and instigate racist and chauvinist Umno responses like the red shirt rally with lies and falsehoods,” Lim added.

Prime Minister Najib Razak had evaded the issue of the hundreds of thousands who rallied during Merdeka Day for his resignation over the 1MDB scandal and for reforms to the country’s institutions by painting it as a Chinese rally meant to insult the Malay leadership.

The PM as such condoned and even praised the Sept 16 rally, initially paraded as a rally to uplift “Malay dignity” in the face of supposed provocation.

Quoting Najib’s speech where he had said, "Slapped once, we did not do anything. The second time... nothing... the third time... nothing... but the fourth time had crossed the limit. Malays also have rights,” Lim said, adding that the PM had at best been misled.

“Najib was misinformed, as all these four instances of ‘slapping’ never took place, whether in Bersih 1, 2, 3 or 4,” he said, pointing out that the previous Bersih rallies had been Malay-dominated.

“In fact, apart from Bersih 4, Malays were the majority in the three previous Bersih rallies - 80 percent Malays in Bersih 1 in 2007; 70 percent Malays in Bersih 2 in 2011; 60 percent Malays in Bersih 3 in 2012, and 40 percent Malays in Bersih 4.”

He added that Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein’s comment that the red shirt rally was a “ balanced reaction ” to the Bersih rally was “completely irresponsible and uncalled-for”.

“I am not really surprised by Hishammuddin’s poor judgement, considering what he had done in the past as Umno Youth leader, but he cannot be more wrong.

“Hishammuddin should know better than anyone else that there is no basis for such calumny and lies,” said Lim.