Media statement by Tony Pua Kiam Wee in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, 25^th April 2011:

EC is demonstrating utter contempt for free and fair elections by parroting lies by Barisan Nasional leaders to denigrate the DAP, without an iota of evidence

In the Utusan Malaysia column by Zulkifli Jalil "Kekang sentiment cauvinis" today, he quoted Deputy Commissioner of Election Commission (EC), Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar as having accused DAP of running a racist campaign in the recently concluded Sarawak elections.

"TIDAK salah saya katakan terdapat kempen-kempen berunsur perkauman di seluruh bandar besar di Sarawak khususnya yang dimainkan oleh DAP."

He had argued that most of DAP's banners in Chinese contained racial elements which were incendiary in nature, during his inspection round on the 14 April and were in breach of the Section 4 of the Election Offences Act. However, because there were "too many" of such posters and banners, the SPR and police were unable to take any action.

He even quoted the Minister of Information, Communication and Culture, Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim who accused that DAP Pending candidate, Violet Yong had argued that "we have had enough of a Melanau being the Chief Minister" ("dah cukup masa orang Melanau jadi CM") in a "closed door ceramah".

The EC Deputy Commissioner even argued that there were too many "closed door ceramahs" conducted during the election!

The above accusations unfortunately are all desperate lies by the Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar who has not only failed to ensure free and fair elections in Sarawak but are now trying to justify to its political masters why EC failed to curb the people's will to vote for Pakatan Rakyat in the urban centres.

I challenge the EC to come up with prove that the DAP has put up banners which were racial in nature which incites racial hatred and anger. Throughout the entire campaign, we have ensure that practically all our campaign materials contains at least 2 languages, whether in Bahasa Malaysia, English, Chinese or Iban. Our campaign theme has been thoroughly focused on fighting corruption, cronyism and abuse of power and never on a particular race.

Even if the EC is indeed shorthanded to the extent that they were unable to "take down" all the so-called "racist" banners by DAP, I am certain that its officials have ready cameras to keep proof and maintain records of such serious transgressions. Datuk Wan Ahmad should show such evidence instead of spreading malicious lies.

In fact, if there was any party which was inciting racial sentiments during the election, it was from Barisan Nasional, and SUPP in particular. Nearly all SUPP banners were only in the Chinese language, and they threatened the Chinese community that if the latter failed to support SUPP, the Government will ignore their needs in the future. Why didn't EC reprimand or take action against the SUPP?

In addition, the DAP has never held any "closed door" ceramahs in Sarawak. All our events whether in public places or function rooms, were always open to public, including to the media and special branch officers, who had diligently video-recorded every word uttered by our leaders. Both Datuk Wan Ahmad and Datuk Seri Rais Yatim should publicly apologise for making the baseless accusation that our candidate Violet Yong has uttered "dah cukup masa orang Melanau jadi CM", failing which our legal bureau will contemplate further actions against them.

Barisan Nasional, having lost the confidence of the public, particularly in the urban centres are now using government agencies such as the Election Commission to incite racial hatred against the DAP in order to protect their own selfish political interest. Datuk Wan Ahmad should resign for not only failing to ensure a level playing field for elections in Sarawak, but also now becoming the cat's paw for BN to defame and denigrate Pakatan Rakyat component parties.

* Tony Pua Kiam Wee, DAP National Publicity Secretary & MP for Petaling Jaya Utara