Kit Siang: Stop all this race baiting

By Opalyn Mok

GEORGE TOWN, May 7 – Gelang Patah MP Lim Kit Siang has called on the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to stop all race baiting especially through the Umno-owned paper, Utusan Malaysia, that had front-paged a report blaming the Chinese for Barisan Nasional’s poor showing in the May 5 polls.

“All this race baiting is deplorable and must be stopped,” said the DAP stalwart (picture) in a press conference while condemning the newspaper for its racist report.

When told that Najib had defended the newspaper and dismissed a rural and urban divide, Lim said this showed that Najib belonged in the past and not in the future.

“Any enlightened, sensible and rational person will not deny that there is a rural and urban divide so for a Prime Minister to deny this, he does himself a great disservice and will be a laughing stock in the world,” he said.

Today, Umno’s Utusan Malaysia front-paged the question “Apa lagi Cina mahu (What else do the Chinese want?) in what appeared to be an attempt to shape the results of Election 2013 as a Chinese-vs-Malay vote.

Najib had defended the newspaper by saying the coalition’s own study contradicted claims that BN is favoured only in rural Malaysia and dismissed polls data showing an urban-rural divide.

“I hope Najib will be a Prime Minister for all Malaysians and take out his racial glasses,” Lim said.

He said BN’s dismal showing in the polls should not be seen through racial glasses but through issues that affect all Malaysians, regardless of race.

“All Malaysians, regardless Malay, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans or Ibans, want prosperity, peace, stability, justice and freedom,” he said.

Lim pointed out that his 14,762 majority win in Gelang Patah was also with the support from the Malay community and not only the Chinese.

“I would say about 30 per cent of the support I received are from the Malay voters,” he said.

Lim had trounced BN’s Abdul Ghani Othman by garnering 54,284 votes while his opponent got 39,522 votes in the May 5 polls.

Najib had blamed a “Chinese tsunami” in the outcome of the Election 2013 but analysts have said data from voting trends showed the result was due to a major swing in the urban and middle-class electorate.

An analysis of how the vote went shows a country with rural-urban and class divisions that will make any reconciliation and necessary reforms even more difficult to implement.

BN took a severe beating in the recent polls when it managed to hold on to only 133 federal seats and 274 out of the 505 total state seats.