KUALA LUMPUR, June 29 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders have scoffed at Khairy Jamaluddin and urged him to look at himself and his own party before calling anyone else a racist.
The Umno Youth chief described DAP’s Lim Kit Siang as a “borderline racist” in a blog entry on Saturday.
He slammed the Ipoh Timur MP for describing the aborted unity talks between PAS and Umno as being against the concept of 1 Malaysia.
According to Khairy, this shockingly implied that Malay-Muslim unity was not good for the country.
However, PJ Utara MP Tony Pua said Umno and its youth chief should first denounce the concept of "Ketuanan Melayu" before calling anyone else racist.
He said unlike Umno, the DAP is not calling for Chinese or Indian unity but Malaysian unity.
“We fight for ‘Ketuanan Rakyat’ or people’s supremacy.” he said.
DAP’s Charles Santiago, in defending his party’s stalwart, said Lim was speaking out against Malay political hegemony or dominance in a multiracial Malaysia.
“Khairy is just trying to score brownie points among the Malays by hitting out at Lim.”
The Klang MP said Umno itself was a race-based party with a 100 per cent Malay membership and to accuse Lim as racist made no sense.
Datuk Kamaruddin Jaafar said the Umno Youth chief, who supported his predecessor's move to raise the keris during party’s general assembly, should not be calling anyone else a racist.
The PAS Tumpat MP added that Umno was never sincere about talks for Malay or even national unity.
“He is just trying to arouse Malay racial sentiment by writing what he did (in his blog)” he said, adding that no one was biting.
DAP’s Teresa Kok said Khairy should first tell the people if Malay unity was more important than national unity which is the message that Lim was trying to get across.
Her sentiments were shared by PKR’s Saifuddin Nasution who added no party was more racist than Umno.
He said this is proven at each general assembly where delegates use it as a platform to hit out at other races.
Saifuddin described the unity talks issue as a matter of convenience and a desperate measure on the part of Umno to prolong its own survival.
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