Silence on Perkasa backing shows multiracial BN a lie

BN parties should publicly apologise for knowingly backing Malay supremacist group Perkasa or drop pretense that they are fighting for a multi-racial Malaysia, DAP said.

Its secretary general Lim Guan Eng said that since Perkasa has disclosed that the government had funded some of its activities, BN  has revealed its true colors.

He said that while it was not surprising that Umno backed Perkasa even before the general elections, he charged MCA, MIC and Gerakan for being liars, irrelevant or powerless partners in BN, if they now profess ignorance of this fact.

"Umno can no longer blame non-Malays and non-Muslims for not supporting Umno and BN because their strong suspicions that Umno is behind Perkasa is now proven correct.

"BN and its component parties in MCA, Gerakan and MIC should publicly apologise for trying to deceive and delude the public that they are multi-racial and fight for all Malaysians. Perkasa has nothing else to offer to Malaysia to deal with the most pressing issues of fighting corruption and rising cost of living," Lim said in a statement.

The Penang chief minister said he considers BN funding of Perkasa's activities as a cover up of its own flaws as a ruling party, especially on pressing economic issues.

"Clearly BN will continue to play the racial card because they fail to provide sound policies and a bright vision of the future that will fight corruption and lead to stronger communities, a higher standard of living and sustainable development," Lim said.

He noted that BN has yet to implement open competitive tenders, make public declaration of assets of leaders of government and has not fairly explained the extraordinary wealth of BN cronies and family members, nor the recent price hikes.

Lim also criticised BN for misplaced policies including the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and price hikes of essential goods and services at a time when Malaysia's record household debt to GDP ratio stood at 83.5 percent, the second highest in Asia.

Despite this, he said, "BN cronies and their family members are continuing to live in luxury with expensive tastes not only in Malaysia but also buying expensive properties overseas."

Lim said he was sure that if the general election was held now, Pakatan would win more votes.

"After these serial price hikes, public anger at the realisation that they were deviously tricked by BN would have enabled Pakatan to win an even higher popular vote if a general election was held now," he said.