'Najib may not honour promises to the Chinese'

Even though Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is showering promises to advance Chinese education in the country, he may go back on his word, just as former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad did.

"They make promises but will they fulfill them? Just like in 1999, when Mahathir accepted the Su Qiu request for more freedom and after the general election that year, he turned around and bit them," DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said today.

"Najib and BN are able to do the same because their record over the last 50 years is not about making promises but breaking promises made," Lim told journalists after an ceramah in Jementah,Segamat, this afternoon.

Lim was responding to Najib's announcement to upgrade Southern College in Skudai, Johor, and Han Chiang College in Penang, symbols of Chinese education, to university colleges in the run-up to Sunday's general election.

"This is a desperate act by someone who is dying... There is no point making such promises at the last minute... the people will not believe anymore," he said.

Lim, who received a hero's welcome, with the crowd swelling to more than 1,000 people after the ceramah ended, was swarmed for autographs from the locals.

He also responded to Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin's challenge to answer whether Pakatan would abolish BN's 1Malaysia products such as BR1M, if the opposition coalition comes to power.

"Pakatan supports policies that benefit the people and we will tackle malpractices and hanky panky," he said, pointing to examples where an MCA 'datuk' had received the BR1M aid and a Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia cost up to RM6.7 million to set up.

Guan Eng: I want to debate with Muhyiddin

The best solution, Lim said, was for Muhyiddin to accept a public debate with him on this matter.

"I challenge Muhyiddin to a public debate, any time, any place, anywhere," he said.

On the call to the two girls from Southern College who said they were sexually molested by a youth clad in a BN T-shirt during Najib's visit to college on Monday to lodge a police report, Lim said the government should sympathise with the predicament of the girls.

"It has to be understood that perhaps they do not want the publicity and may not be able to identify the perpetrator, since the place was crammed with people. The organisers should take full responsibility and help identify the attacker.

"It leaves a bad taste in the mouth for those who wanted to see the prime minister. Is this is the kind of treatment they get? A responsible government should help identify the person responsible," he said.

Lim also hit out at the Election Commission on the complaints that have arisen about the indelible ink used during the advance voting yesterday as not being indelible.

"We were wondering whether this is another scam... and again it has only proven what have said, that the EC cannot be trusted to hold a clean, fair and independent election," Lim added.

The EC has explained that the problem was due to its staff's failure to shake the bottles of indelible ink before applying it.