S'WAK POLLS BN has no business urging Chinese Malaysian voters to return their support to the coalition while still discriminating against them, said Piasau DAP candidate Dr Ting Tiong Choon.

He said despite BN’s "scare tactics" of claiming that the Chinese would be left out of government if it votes for the opposition, the Chinese are already being treated as second-class citizens from the moment they are born.

This is reflected in the Election Commission’s (EC) statistics from 2014 to 2015, Ting said, which showed that 7,828 Malaysians have relinquished their citizenship to migrate to Singapore.

Of these, 96.7 percent are of Chinese ethnicity, and does not include those who have migrated but did not inform the EC.

"BN of then spoke of ‘bumiputera in power; Chinese in wilderness’ to scare Chinese voters, but under BN’s half-century rule, the Malaysian Chinese are humiliatingly labelled as non-bumiputera and destined to be second-class citizens from the moment they are born.

“This has gone to the extent where many Chinese are unwilling to live under this national policy of discrimination.

"Is BN willing to change the status quo?” he told a press conference in Miri today.

He challenged Sarawak caretaker Chief Minister Adenan Satem and Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to abolish the race column in the federal government’s official forms before the Sarawak election polling date on May 7.

Ting argued that instead of trying to lure Malaysians abroad to return and be only successful in attracting a small number of people, it would be better to improve race relations in Malaysia and ensure that all Malaysians are treated equally.

“Otherwise, on what basis are BN candidates urging Chinese voters to return to their fold, and support a BN that supports discrimination against them,” he added.

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