Media statement by Teresa Kok Suh Sim in Shah Alam on Wednesday, 4^th May 2011:

Shameful of MCA's Liow Tiong Lai to call DAP "real racist" while kowtowing to the hate speech and racist spiel of Utusan Malaysia and Perkasa

MCA Vice President Liow Tiong Lai's should hang his head in shame for having accused the DAP of being "the practitioner of real racism" when MCA is inherently a race-based party that condones the fear-mongering, hate speech and racist spiel spouted by Utusan Malaysia and Perkasa.

(Source: http://www.mca.org.my/en/decision-to-not-join-in-the-cabinet-embodies-the-spirit-of-democracy-tiong-lai-racism-is-within-dap-itself/ )

It's also absurd that Liow would make his wild accusation at the multi-racial DAP when MCA accepts only Malaysians of Chinese descent as its members. As its constitution states:

"9.0 Subject to Article 14 hereof no person may be accepted nor having been accepted may remain as a member unless:

9.1 he is a Malaysian citizen of Chinese descent"

In contrast, DAP membership is open to all Malaysians regardless of race. DAP welcomes all Malaysians to join in our struggle for a peaceful and prosperous social democracy.

This is obvious in DAP's line-up of elected representatives. In the Dewan Rakyat, DAP has 22 Members of Parliament who are of Chinese descent, 5 of Indian descent, and 2 of Punjabi descent. I challenge Liow to state how many non-Chinese MPs that MCA has. The answer is zero.

As for the Dewan Negara, DAP has a Senator who is Malay and a second who is of Indian descent. I challenge Liow to state how many non-Chinese Senators that MCA has. The answer is again zero.

In this regard, MCA is no different from its long-time political partners UMNO and MIC which accepts only Bumiputera and only Indians respectively as members, to the exclusion of other Malaysians.

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Liow turns a blind eye to the true "practitioners of real racism" that they are in league with. How silent was Liow when the UMNO-owned Utusan Malaysia newspaper called for Malays to unite behind a 1Melayu 1Bumi movement to take on the so-called Chinese challenge. And how powerless is Liow to condemn Perkasa, the Malay supremacist group whose membership consists largely of UMNO members, which castigates the Chinese for being ungrateful for the great concession of being born Malaysian citizens.

As MCA Vice President and the Health Minister of the 1Malaysia government, Liow should not embarrass himself and his party further with his baseless attacks against DAP which only call attention to MCA's own inherent weakness as a race-based party. I urge him to instead find the moral courage to condemn the racist and divisive politics played by UMNO, MIC, Utusan Malaysia and Perkasa instead of kowtowing to them for MCA's selfish political survival.

* Teresa Kok Suh Sim, DAP National Organizing Secretary, Selangor State Senior EXCO & MP for Seputeh