PETALING JAYA: PAS has alleged that DAP veteran Tan Sri Lim Kit Siang’s talk on being a Prime Minister among non-Malays is not just confusing but also harmful propaganda that may cause racial disharmony in the country.
PAS secretary-general Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan said PAS has found Lim’s statement during a speech to Malaysian students in Manchester, England, on Nov 29 and a follow-up statement at Gleneagles, Scotland, on Dec 5 to be not just confusing but a repetition of propaganda with potential to cause racial disharmony in the country.
“It is common knowledge that some DAP leaders have been raising this matter for decades, including in 2012 by the late Karpal Singh and in 2017 by Lim himself.
“This time, by hiding behind the Federal Constitution, Rukun Negara and Vision 2020, Lim deliberately gave a wrong impression about Malays or the political scene by claiming that all the documents had aimed at the “Malaysian Dream”, which is multi-ethnic, religious and cultural, rather than a mono-ethnic dream.
“He also seemed to take the opportunity to raise this matter when Umno, as a Malay party, is stuck as a member of the Madani government to cause the party to stay muted.
“According to Lim, his statement that non-Malays can become Prime Minister, is supported by the Constitution.
“Once again, Lim acted ignorant of the law without looking at the convention that has been practised since the country’s independence until now. That is not only because there is no non-Malay to be Prime Minister, but not even one appointed as Deputy Prime Minister.
He added that PAS has found Lim’s narrative of Malaysian Dream today not too different from the “Malaysian Malaysia” narrative preached by former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew once upon a time and inherited by DAP after that.
“Even Lim’s speech to Malaysian students recently about the dream of mono-ethnicity and ‘whether Malaysia can rise again to become a great country of the world or is Malaysia destined to be a divided, failed, and kleptocratic country’ is no different from Lee’s speech to our students in London in 1964.
“Lee, among others, said, ‘Malaysians survive or fail depending on whether we set out to create a Malaysian nation or a Malay nation with special rights reserved for Malays’,” said Takiyuddin.
He said PAS is urging any party still raising such matters to stop practising ‘rage baiting’ of Malays and Bumiputera to prevent racial disharmony.
