DAP challenges Utusan to debate - Utusan racist or DAP racist?

KUALA LUMPUR — The DAP today challenged Utusan Malaysia to debate their oft-repeated claims that the opposition party was “racist.”

Tony Pua, the party’s national publicity secretary, said today that the DAP had enough of the Umno-owned daily’s allegations, calling it “extreme, exaggerated, lies and wild allegations”.

“In the interest of truth and justice, I challenge ‘Awang Selamat’ which can be represented by anyone from Utusan to take part in an open debate on Umno’s desperation on “DAP and Malays.”

“The editors of Utusan should not hide behind pen names and make baseless allegations like a sniper. Does that mean DAP is a worse threat than the communist insurgency? We are offering Utusan a chance to defend their position like true “defenders” of their race, and not like cowards in the face of challenge,” Pua told reporters today.

In Utusan’s weekend edition Mingguan Malaysia yesterday, the Umno-owned daily accused DAP of being racist and called it the worst danger facing the country.

DAP Bukit Bendera MP Liew Chin Tong immediately responded to the paper’s columnist Awang Selamat’s accusation, saying Umno and the Utusan Malaysia weekly edition are liars.

Utusan has been critical of DAP in the past few months, particularly the Penang government led by party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, over claims that the chief minister’s name replaced the King’s name in Friday prayers, gambling funds being used as compassionate payments for the elderly and Malay reserve land being used for commercial purposes.

“The DAP strategy to get close to the Malays is because they don’t want to depend on PAS and PKR. They worry that PAS will desert the pact. PKR itself looks shaky,” said the columnist Awang Selamat, the pseudonym is usually used by the paper’s senior editors.

“Actually, DAP is the most racist party in the world. For Awang, the DAP threat is more dangerous than any threat that been faced in the country’s history. Only their colonialism is more subtle, cloaked by democratic slogans and without weapons. But the implications are great.

“The constitution, the position of Islam and the monarchy are the wagers that could lead to Malaysia being a republic. Is that what we want?” Awang Selamat wrote.

The columnist’s rhetoric has been shared by several Ummo politicians and attributed to their anger and envy towards non-Malays, believing that non-Malays should remain submissive to the bigger Malay demographic.

In response today, Pua claimed today that the DAP had “proof” which would reveal Utusan for what it was — “the most racist paper in the world and the worst threat in the country’s history since independence.”

“We will give them a week to respond,” said Pua.

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP said that the DAP was open to suggestions to who should host the debate.

"It can be organised by any independent party including the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) or TV3...we are waiting for Utusan to deliver the good news," said Pua. - Malaysian Insider