‘Sober’ Khairy now becoming extremist, says Guan Eng
Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar is now travelling the "dark road" of extremists like Perkasa and its president Datuk Ibrahim Ali, said DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.
Lim said Umno was no longer the future hope for Malaysia as even Khairy, whom Lim described as a "sober voice" in Umno, was playing the racial and religious card by warning non-Malays not to challenge the "special rights" of Malays.
"He (Khairy) has taken the dark road travelled by extremists like Perkasa and Ibrahim Ali, when he used his policy speech at the Umno Youth assembly to blame the non-Malays for questioning the status of the rulers, special position of the Malays and official status of Bahasa Malaysia as the national language.
"Putting the blame on non-Malays is dishonest and evil politics by Khairy because it is simply false and malicious that the non-Malays questioned such rights enshrined in the Federal Constitution," he said in a statement today.
Lim, who is also Bagan MP and Penang chief minister, said Umno itself had questioned the rights of the Malay rulers in the early 1990s.
He also slammed Khairy for calling DAP "that chauvinistic party" because it had attracted young Malays to join as members.
"Isn’t DAP’s success in attracting Malay youths a positive sign that the party is neither chauvinistic nor racist but a multiracial political party fighting for all Malaysians?" he said.
Lim said Khairy should instead be addressing facts and figures from reports about the incomes of Malaysian households.
The Malaysia Human Development Report 2013 revealed that 53% of Malaysian households have no financial assets while one in three Malaysians have no banking or financial accounts of any kind.
It also showed that rural households have the highest number of those without any financial assets (63%), compared to 45% of urban households. By ethnic group, about 57% of non-Malay Bumiputeras and 55% of Malays have no financial assets, with the figure for the Chinese and Indians at 45% and 44% respectively.
Almost 90% and 86% of rural and urban households respectively had no savings, the report had said, citing the Household Income Survey (HIS).
Lim asked why Khairy had not addressed the report, which was sponsored by the Prime Minister’s Department, since it had a direct impact on the economic future of Malaysians, especially youths including Malays and Bumiputeras.
"Clearly he has taken the easy way out by playing the racial card because he has no answers. He knows that Umno is not part of the solution to the problem. The party is the problem," he said.
Khairy had in his speech at the Umno general assembly today said non-Malays should never again dispute the special rights of the Malays and the position of the rulers.
He said the Malays had never questioned vernacular schools and the citizenship of non-Malays, and that the Malays had made a huge sacrifice in allowing other races to be part of the country.
He also asked why there were some among the non-Malays who refused to honour the social contract agreed upon during the formation of Malaysia.
Khairy also said Umno had “fallen behind times” and trailed behind opposition parties in allowing younger leaders to take up leadership positions.
He said that if compared to Pakatan Rakyat, including the "chauvinistic DAP", the opposition parties had been successful in drawing the young by offering them opportunities. – November 26, 2014.
