DAP supremo and veteran politician Lim Kit Siang was clearly upset with the suggestion that he had ‘sold out’ his party policies in a “secret pact” jointly signed by top Pakatan Rakyat leaders.

He said it was “mischievous” of The Star editor-in-chief Wong Chun Wai to infer that DAP was being opportunistic and had in a “dishonest act of political expediency” inked the document to uphold Malay rights and status of Islam.

parliament pandikar amin anwar ibrahim lim kit siang dap pkr pc 121108 04 Wong, in his ‘New Malaysia’ blog , referred to a report by the MCA-owned newspaper in which PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim talked about the Pakatan statement at a briefing to religious school teachers Selangor organised by the state’s Islamic religious department.

According to the news report , Anwar also told the religious school teachers that the three parties had even agreed to the contentious issue of social contract among the country’s major ethnic groups.

“Despite the criticism against the social contract and even questions about its existence, the three opposition parties realise the reality of politics in this country. This is no different from positions taken by the Alliance and the Barisan Nasional component parties,” said Wong in his blog.

According to Lim, the joint statement was not a “secret” as it was issued to all media , including The Star , on Sept 8. The DAP leader said he had uploaded the statement in his own blog the same day.

“Wong has only himself to blame if he did not keep himself informed of what actually happened...” said Lim.

No change in DAP’s stand for 42 years

He said that DAP has upheld Articles 3 and 153 of the constitution on Islam as the official religion and Malay special rights “in the past 42 years”.

“Although Article 3(1) states that ‘Islam is the religion of Federation’ and did not specifically use the term ‘official religion’, the DAP and I had always supported Islam as the official religion and the constitutional guarantee for freedom of worship for other religions.

“We have also never shifted from our stand that Article 3 does not provide the basis for an Islamic state which is contrary to the secular character of Malaysian nation-building agreed by the major communities on the attainment of independent nationhood and an important feature of the Merdeka ‘social contract’.”

In an immediate response, Wong said that the opposition political was "entitled to his views as in any democracy".

"This is what a discourse is all about, we need not agree with each other, but as a general rule, I think we are mature enough to be able discuss such issues without putting down each other, resorting to name calling or sounding like a bully," he said in a follow-up blog posting on the issue.

Wong lamented that Lim had used words in criticising him which he himself would not use.

The four-paragraph Sept 8 statement, while affirming the opposition coalition’s backing for the “fundamental principles” in the constitution, did not however mention about the social contract.

The following is Pakatan’s Sept 8 joint statement in full:

We, the Pakatan Rakyat (People's Alliance) Leaders Council which met on this day, Sept 8, 2008, hereby express our abhorrence of recent efforts by Umno to incite racist political sentiments. We fear that this issue is being played up to confuse the people, in order to disguise the fact that it is actually a desperate measure to try and salvage the personal interests of a small group of the political elite and their cronies.

We hereby reiterate that Pakatan Rakyat upholds the fundamental principles enshrined in the federal constitution. These include: the position of Islam as the religion of the Federation and the guarantee of freedom of worship for other religions; the position of Bahasa Melayu (the Malay language) as the language of the federation, and the right to use and study the mother tongues of other communities; the position and sovereignty of the institution of the Malay rulers; and the special position and rights of the Malays and bumiputeras (indigenous people) as well as the rights of all ethnic groups as guaranteed in the constitution.

Based on these constitutional principles, we emphatically reject the narrow racist approach which is the foundation of Umno/BN politics. Such an approach has in fact been deliberately used to divide the people and undermine the harmony of our multi-ethnic nation.

In this connection, we also voice our strong objection to the speech made by (suspended Bukit Bendera Umno chief) Ahmad Ismail and subsequently supported by the entire Penang Umno leadership. His speech was typical of Umno racist policies which in reality only serve the interests of a select group of wealthy Malays, their families and close associates, who have taken advantage of their political power to plunder the national wealth, in the guise of protecting Malay and bumiputera rights.

Signed by Anwar Ibrahim (PKR), Husam Musa (PAS) and Lim Kit Siang (DAP)