Muhyiddin: ‘I’m no racist’

What say you ? Racist ? or What ? Semi-racist ? Selective Racist ? like Mamakutti's selective memory ?

KUALA KUBU BARU, April 23 — Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin lashed out at the opposition tonight for accusing him of being a racist.

Speaking at a dinner at SRJK (C) Khing Ming in Kuala Kubu Baharu, Muhyiddin said he was a Malaysian at heart and that the opposition had once again twisted facts and was going around telling the Chinese and Indian communities that he was a racist.

“Everybody has their roots, and I am Malay. But in my heart, I am Malaysian. I have been a mentri besar and a minister in various ministries, and during all that time nobody had accused me of being a racist.

“But now, suddenly, I have become a racist. I am truly Malaysian at heart. Please do not twist facts. (DAP leader Lim) Kit Siang has accused me of being a racist. I have been in the government for so long, holding many positions, but I was never called a racist then,” he said.

Last month, Muhyiddin said he considered himself a “Malay first” and then only a Malaysian, in response to a challenge issued by Lim, the DAP advisor.

He had said this in response to Lim’s challenge for him to state that he was Malaysian first and Malay second to prove that he did indeed believe in the 1 Malaysia concept initiated by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

“I am Malay first! But being Malay does not mean you are not Malaysian. It is not a race issue. It’s an understanding of the term gagasan (concept). I don’t think Kit Siang understands what the word gagasan means,” the deputy prime minister was quoted as saying then.

Muhyiddin said tonight that the opposition was harping on the issue to pit him against Najib and cause a rift in relations between the nation’s top two leaders.

He is on the campaign trail in the Hulu Selangor parliamentary by-election, polling for which is on Sunday and will see a straight fight between P. Kamalanathan of the Barisan Nasional (BN) and Datuk Zaid Ibrahim of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).

On another matter, Muhyiddin said nobody could deny that Malaysia’s development was due to the hard work of all the races in the country, including the Chinese community.

“Nobody can deny that the Chinese have contributed to the development of this country, especially in terms of the economy. They work hard and enjoy the returns of their hard work.

“This government is not a Robin Hood government to steal from the rich and give to the poor. If you work hard, you are entitled to become rich. Nobody, not even the government, can stop that,” he added.

He said one of the reasons Malaysia attained such a high stature in the international arena was because the government gave fair opportunities to all races in the country to succeed and become wealthy.

“We in the Barisan Nasional don’t bluff. If (it is the) opposition, yes they lie. I can’t bluff because there is evidence of what I am talking about. This has been the government’s policy, which is to allow all races to prosper,” he said.

He said the hard work of the Chinese community, especially in business, should be emulated by all the other races in the country.

“We do not steal from the Chinese and give to the others. Under the BN government, we give equal opportunity to all. But to achieve developed nation status by 2020, we need all the other communities to be on par in terms of wealth distribution.

“This is a fact. We cannot be a developed country if only one race is successful while the other races are lagging behind. The government has got clear plans on how we will achieve this, which can be examined.

“We are not like the opposition who talk something and do something else. We know the people want change and this is what the BN government is offering them,” he said. — Bernama