Anyone who hates any racial or religious group in the country cannot be true and patriotic Malaysians.
The clearest signal came from Umno vice president and Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, thinks Lim, when he announced on Tues that the relevance of maintaining the Chinese school system will be one of the “hotly-debated topics” during the Umno annual general assembly this month.
“Already, there have been other statements in the media that ‘if Umno loses, the Malays will never rule again’ and that ‘Malays are not welcome in a state up north ruled by the Opposition’,” pointed out Lim, also DAP Parliamentary Leader and Gelang Patah MP, in a speech carried in his bloghttp://blog.limkitsiang.com
Lim was launching the Chinese version of, Masa Depan, Masa Kita, a book by Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar.
“In recent days, we have witnessed an unprecedented upsurge of rhetoric and the politics of hatred, intolerance and extremism causing the worst racial and religious polarization for over four decades.”
Lim sees the latest remarks by Umno leaders and their apologists as variations of the rhetoric on “the politics of hatred, intolerance and extremism that continues to haunt Malaysia”.
The rhetoric has it, notes Lim, that Malays and Islam are under siege, that the end of Umno rule would mean the end of Malay political power, that the Chinese are out to grab the political power of the Malays and make the Malays “refugees in their own land”, that the country would be turned into a Christian state.
“Such talk is not only wild, baseless, and far-fetched but downright mischievous, malicious, vile and seditious,” fumed Lim. “They are calculated to cause maximum unrest and havoc in the country.”
If the Umno Assembly does degenerate into “another round of ferocious Chinese-bashing”, Lim added, it would be a continuation of the orgy of Chinese-bashing immediately after the 13th General Elections in May last year.
“The Umno organ, Utusan Malaysia, then led the attack with banner headlines ‘Apa lagi orang Cina mahu?’ (What else do the Chinese want?), ignoring the fact that GE13 was not a Chinese but an urban tsunami,” said Lim.
Apart from missing one parliamentary term from 1999-2004, Lim said that he has been MP for ten terms from 1969, i.e. for a period of 40 years.
“I issued a challenge in Parliament in June last year to anyone to quote a single speech that I have made in Parliament in the past four decades which is anti-Malay or anti-Islam,” said Lim in establishing his credentials.
“There should be an independent commission of inquiry to identify those responsible for all the incendiary, inflammatory, seditious and racist speeches, statements and articles before, during and after the GE13, whether made in Parliament or outside, resulting in serious racial and religious polarization in the country.”
Anyone who hates any racial or religious group in the country, warned Lim, cannot be true and patriotic Malaysians.
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