Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang in Parliament on Wednesday, 9^th December 2009: 

Muhyiddin is chief Cabinet hawk siding with Mahathir against Nazri – ball in Najib’s court facing critical test for his 1Malaysia concept which is virtually in tatters

The Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has come out as the chief hawk in Cabinet to side with former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad against the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz in the row over the divisive, racist and seditious Biro Tata Negara (BTN) indoctrination course and Umno as a racist party.

The ball is now in Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s court with Najib’s 1Malaysia concept facing a critical test.

Nazri is right in describing Mahathir as a racist in defending the divisive, racist and seditious BTN course and Mahathir is right in his response that Umno is a racist party.

The question is why Umno should continue to impose its racist ideology on the government and country and to turn BTN into an instrument to purvey its racist philosophy and pernicious doctrine, totally subversive of the Vision 2020 concept of Bangsa Malaysia as well as Najib’s 1Malaysia.

So far, only the veteran Umno leader Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has come out publicly to call for the closure of BTN.

Three UMNO Ministers, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister, Datuk Seri Noh Omar and Women, Family and Community Development, Datuk Shahrizat Jalil have aligned themselves with Muhyiddin and Mahathir in defending the BTN programme.

The Gerakan President and KPI Minister Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon has waffled with an ambivalent and weak-kneed position, looking for excuses for Mahathir when he said that the former Prime Minister might not have been aware of the “latest slant” in the BTN course though Mahathir would not appreciate Koh’s mitigation plea for him.

But what is the position of all the other Cabinet Ministers from Umno, MCA, MIC and from Sabah and Sarawak – and most important of all, what is Najib’s position? Najib must be forewarned that with the BTN row and other recent developments, his 1Malaysia concept and slogan is virtually in tatters.

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary leader & MP for Ipoh Timor