Media statement by Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, 8^th March 2012: 

Muhyiddin is the first person to come to mind when Najib talks about “Opponents of 1Malaysia are power-crazy and a cynical bunch”

The first person to come to anyone's mind when reading the Star headline “PM: Opponents of 1Malaysia are power-crazy and a cynical bunch” is none other than the Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

This was because it was Muhyiddin who was the first public personality to repudiate Najib's 1Malaysia policy of creating “a nation where every Malaysian perceives himself or herself as Malaysian first, and by race, religion, geographical region or socio-economic background second” when he declared that he is “a Malay first and then only a Malaysian”.

I had said in my speech in Parliament on March 18, 2010 that the biggest enemy of 1Malaysia is not from outside Barisan Nasional but from inside UMNO and Barisan Nasional, and I have been proved right in the past two years.

Even the Prime Minister himself dare not openly berate or dissociate himself from Muhyiddin's repudiation of 1Malaysia.

In July last year, when Najib was specifically asked by Malaysian students at the Malaysian Student Leaders' Summit (MSLS) in Kuala Lumpur whether he was Malaysian first and what he thought of his deputy's infamous remark of being “Malay first and Malaysian next”, Najib ducked the question, saying:

“I don’t want to respond in a way that will divide me from my deputy.

“1 Malaysia is our guiding philosophy. It does not matter what you say, just as long as you follow (the 1 Malaysia concept).”

In the March 2010 Parliament, I had observed that the Najib Cabinet was full of Ministers who were quite sceptical about the 1Malaysia concept treating it as nothing more than political theatre.

I specifically asked who were the Ministers in the Cabinet who had the 1Malaysia DNA as I could not see anyone, posing two 1Malaysia DNA tests for the Cabinet Ministers:

• Is the Minister prepared to declare that the basis of 1Malaysia is “ketuanan rakyat Malaysia” and not “ketuanan Melayu”?; and

• Is he or she prepared to endorse the objective of 1Malaysia as defined by the 1Malaysia Government Transformation Programme (GTP) Roadmap launched in January 2010 to create a nation where every Malaysian perceives himself or herself as Malaysian first, and by race, religion, region or socio-economic status second by declaring that he or she is Malaysian first and ethnicity second?

We not only have the Deputy Prime Minister who very early in the day declared that he is “a Malay first and then only a Malaysian”, we have now another Cabinet Minister Datuk Idris Jala, who would have been the leading standard bearer of the 1Malaysia policy of “Malaysian first”, now recoiled from the concept, demanding to know instead: “Why must I be Malaysian first and Malay second?”

Najib is right that the opponents of 1Malaysia are “power crazy and a cynical bunch”, but they come from inside UMNO and Barisan Nasional, resulting in the worst racial and religious polarisation in the nation's history under Najib's premiership when race and religious relations should be at their best if 1Malaysia is a serious and meaningful Prime Ministerial policy instead of being an empty and hollow one.

This is why there had been immunity and impunity for extremists, whether in UMNO especially Utusan Malaysia, its official newspaper, or groups out-sourced by UMNO like Perkasa, who are given a field day to spout their incendiary lies and falsehoods to stoke racial hatred and religious tensions?

When MCA spread lies that a vote for DAP is a vote for PAS to establish an Islamic state, and UMNO spread lies that a vote for PAS is a vote for DAP to further anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Malay Rulers objectives, they not only expose the hypocritical and double-faced politics of Barisan Nasional, they also make a total mockery of Najib's 1Malaysia policy.

Next month is the third anniversary of Najib's premiership as well as his signature 1Malaysia policy.

How is he reining in the opponents of 1Malaysia inside UMNO and Barisan Nasional, from Muhyiddin to Cabinet Ministers and Barisan Nasional leaders, so as to get them all to declare that they fully support the 1Malaysia policy of “Malaysian first, and by race, religion, geographical region or socio-economic background second” and to end all hypocritical, dishonest and double-faced politics and halt the worsening racial and religious polarisation in the country?

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