By Debra Chong | June 02, 2011
The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, June 2 — The DAP’s Lim Kit Siang added today the MCA to a growing list of what he termed the “greatest obstacles” in the way of Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1 Malaysia dream as he questioned the Chinese party’s relevance to the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.
The opposition leader continued to fire shots at its political foe over the controversial award of Public Service Department (PSD) scholarships to deserving students, blaming the MCA for frustrating the aspirations of the nation’s best and brightest and leading to the drop in public confidence in the Najib administration’s national reforms.
Lim said Malaysians are reminded daily how hollow and meaningless Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s unity concept regardless of race, religion, geography or socio-economic status by the lack of action from within the 13-member BN coalition.
“Where were the MCA, Gerakan, Umno and other BN ministers when I challenged them in Parliament in March last year to declare that they truly support the 1 Malaysia concept of being Malaysian first and race second?” the Ipoh Timur MP asked in a statement.
He said there has been silence from the BN partners against Umno’s increasing Malay nationalist rhetoric, recited Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s “Malay first, Malaysian second” remark, Utusan Malaysia’s “1 Malay” campaign, and the paper’s presumed DAP-Christian Malaysia plot as examples.
“Can [Datuk Seri Dr] Chua [Soi Lek] answer any of these queries — or there can only be more shaking of heads by Malaysians at the increasing irrelevance and impotence of MCA in the Malaysian political landscape?” Lim said, targeting the MCA president.