Guan Eng: Perkasa aid allegations show Umno’s allies in BN lying or weak

(MM) – The MCA, MIC and Gerakan claims of ignorance over government aid to Perkasa show that the Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties are either lying or subservient to Umno, DAP’s Lim Guan Eng said today.

The Penang chief minister and DAP secretary-general also said that Umno could no longer blame non-Malays and non-Muslims for not supporting the ruling coalition, as the BN lynchpin is now “proven” to be backing the Malay right-wing group.

“BN and its component parties in MCA, Gerakan and MIC should publicly apologise for trying to deceive and delude the public that they are multi-racial and fight for all Malaysians,” said Lim in a statement today.

“With Umno openly backing Perkasa, the continued participation of MCA, Gerakan and MIC in BN only shows their craven subservience to Umno to cling on to the perks and privileges of office. Clearly, BN will continue to play the racial card because they fail to provide sound policies and a bright vision of the future that will fight corruption and lead to stronger communities, a higher standard of living and sustainable development,” he added.

Perkasa secretary-general Syed Hassan Syed Ali was reported by news portal The Malaysian Insider as saying last Tuesday that government agencies like the National Security Council (MKN), the National Civics Bureau (BTN) and the Special Affairs Department (Jasa) had contributed funds for certain Perkasa programmes.

Perkasa deputy president Datuk Abdul Rahman Abu Bakar, however, told Malay-language daily Utusan Malaysia yesterday that Umno has never contributed a single sen to the non-governmental organisation’s (NGO) struggle.

Abdul Rahman rebutted Umno supreme council member Tan Sri Isa Samad’s claim that Perkasa had received help from the Malay nationalist party.

Lim said today that it was “abominable” of BN to fund a “racist and overtly anti non-Muslim and anti non-Malay” organisation like Perkasa that purportedly sought to reduce non-Malays and non-Muslims to “third-class citizens”.

“BN and Umno should give a full accounting of the public funds that are also contributed by non-Malays and non-Muslims that were made available to Perkasa,” he said.

“Perkasa has nothing else to offer to Malaysia to deal with the most pressing issues of fighting corruption and rising cost of living,” added the Bagan MP.