DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang slammed Malay language daily Utusan Malaysia for what he claimed is another in a long list of misquotes of the socialist party’s leadership by the Umno-owned newspaper.
He was referring to the daily’s front-page today, with the headline ‘Karpal perjuangkan PM bukan Melayu’ (Karpal fighting for non-Malay PM), quoting DAP national chairperson Karpal Singh as saying: “Selagi saya hidup, saya akan berjuang untuk melihat seorang bukan Melayu menjadi perdana menteri” (As long as I draw breath, I will fight to see a non-Malay installed as prime minister).
“This lifetime quote was a total distortion of what Karpal told the Utusan reporter
as he had only referred to the Malaysian constitution which provides
that the office of prime minister is open to all Malaysian citizens,”
Lim said in a statement today.He argued that the constitution is very clear that the office of prime minister is open to any Malaysian citizen, regardless of race, religion or region.
“But we accept the political realities that during Karpal and my lifetime, it will be a Malay and not a non-Malay who will be the country’s prime minister,” conceded Lim.
'Irresponsible and unethical'
The DAP leader however lamented that every time “when DAP appears on Utusan’s front-page, it is bad news/political trouble because distortion and unethical/dishonest journalism is at play”.
Lim said that it was “irresponsible and unethical” for Utusan Malaysia to try to concoct a non-existing issue and extract political mileage by falsely claiming that the agenda of Karpal and DAP is to appoint a non-Malay prime minister.
This, he warned, fits into the scare-mongering campaigning conducted by irresponsible and unprincipled leaders, like former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad who only last week had warned Malays that if Umno is defeated in the coming polls the Malays will lose power.
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