DAP fires back: PAS is OK, it's Umno who's racist and MCA still sleeping

Written by Stan Lee, Malaysia Chronicle

DAP has come to the defence of Pakatan Rakyat partner PAS, advising the MCA to wake up from its beauty sleep and listen to the new realities on the ground.

In the past few days, although campaigning has yet to officially open, the Tenang folk especially the non-Malays have been treated to “horror” stories about Islam and the havoc it can wreak in their lives.

“What Dr Boo has said is true. I don’t think anyone in Tenang doesn’t know Dr Boo and how strongly he stands up for the minority races. He commands real respect, not like Soi Lek. The moment the MCA president leaves the room, the people especially the girls giggle at his sex scandal,” Taiping MP Nga Kor Ming told Malaysia Chronicle.

He was referring to comments made by Johor DAP chief Dr Boo Cheng Hau, who is marshalling the Pakatan’s Tenang campaign in areas dominated by non-Malay population.

Sleeping Beauty and Kerismuddin

Boo had ticked off MCA leaders including its president Chua Soi Lek and Umno vice president Hishamuddin Hussein, whom he reminded the Chinese community was the one who had raised the keris at the Umno annual assembly and vowed bloodshed to defend his party.

"MCA is sleeping, thinking that it is still 1999 when people were afraid of an Islamic state. In fact, PAS is now talking about a welfare state and its battles for the benefit of all races," Malaysiakini had reported Boo as saying.

"Umno is the one still talking racial politics. We don't call our home minister Hishammuddin, we call him as Kerismuddin because he always brandishes the keris."

DAP leaders also expressed support for Pakatan candidate Normala Sudirman, and urged the non-Malays in Tenang not to fall for the Umno-BN’s decades-old racial politicking that has divided the country and allowed the corrupt Umno elite to cart away billions of the taxpayers’ money.

DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang also asked the Tenang voters to look at the Pakatan states of Kedah, Kelantan, Penang and Selangor – none of which he pointed out had been turned into an Islamic state.

"We support Normala and PAS, not because we support an Islamic state. Pakatan's common agenda is anti-corruption, a fair and equal government, and independent and professional state institutions," said DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang.

"Any Pakatan policy must be agreed to by all three parties. Each party can have its own policy, but only those agreed to by all three parties will become Pakatan's common policy."

Anti-Chinese

Meanwhile, PJ Utara MP Tony Pua, also in Tenang, warned voters there that a vote for the BN was also a vote for their cronies. Even today, the BN was subsidizing and helping their own families and friends, rather than the citizenry, Tony said.

Perhaps DAP Youth chief Anthony Loke summed it up best. He drew sharp applause from the crowd when he urged them to reject Umno-BN.

"If we vote for Umno, it means that we accept Umno's continued oppression of us and allow the party to continue its extreme racial statements and behaviour," said Loke.

Meanwhile, PAS’s Normala showed the crowd that she was not anti-Chinese as the BN has tried to portray her to be. She included several Mandarin phrases in her speech, and pundits say, the unfair attacks may earn her sympathy votes.

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