MCA president Liow Tiong Lai has come under fire from DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua for saying that the appointment of the party’s parliamentary advisor Lim Kit Siang as prime minister would result in “racial disharmony.”

Liow’s statement came a day after PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang attacked DAP along similar lines, when he said DAP should not aspire towards the post of prime minister since Malaysia should be led by a Muslim.  

Pua questioned if Liow (photo) was echoing Hadi’s “fear-mongering rhetoric” to ensure its survival through support from Malay voters in the coming 14th general election.

“Perhaps it should not have come at a surprise that MCA is now so desperate that it felt the need to peddle the same fear-mongering rhetoric as PAS.

“The MCA president must have finally realised that it has no hopes of recovering support from the non-Malay community,” he said in a statement.

“He is now hoping that by demonstrating subservience to Umno and PAS, it can receive higher Malay support.

“This will ensure that MCA might be able to hold on the handful of remaining seats it possesses – such as his (Liow’s) own in Bentong, where he won with a wafer-thin 379-vote majority,” he added.

The previous election saw MCA endure what was dubbed a “Chinese tsunami” – where a large number of Chinese voters swung towards DAP – resulting in its worst election outing since independence.

Pua also claimed that Liow’s statement showed how far MCA has strayed from the principles it was founded upon.

“There could not be a greater irony than a political party founded on the need to protect the interest of the Chinese community now parroting the racially-tainted lies and propaganda espoused by the ketuanan Melayu extremists in Umno and PAS,” he said.

No PM ambition

Meanwhile, Kit Siang (photo) also took Liow to task over his comment, and reiterated that he bore no ambitions of becoming prime minister.

“I have only pity and contempt for Liow that he has sunk so low as to spread the atrocious lies of Umno and PAS leaders that I want to be PM.

“There is no need for me to repeat what I had said before that in my 52 years in politics, the thought of becoming PM has never entered my mind,” he said in a separate statement.

Contrary to Liow and Hadi’s predictions, Lim maintained that a Pakatan Harapan government would be able to protect the rights and interests of all Malaysians.

“Far from the Malays and Islam perishing in Malaysia, a Harapan government in Putrajaya will prove that it is more capable than the Umno or BN government in protecting and promoting the rights and interests of all racial and religious groups in the country, especially the Malays and Islam.

“Otherwise, it will lose the mandate to govern, and face rejection in the subsequent general election five years later (in GE15),” he added.