MCA, Gerakan and MIC the real beggars, says Teresa

She says Mahathir knows Umno’s arrogance has made beggars of its component parties and that Malays will always be politically dominant.

KUALA LUMPUR: DAP National Vice Chairperson Teresa Kok has said former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad might have suffered a lapse in memory as the late Lim Keng Yaik had already pointed out years ago that it was MCA, Gerakan and MIC who were the real beggars, not Umno or Malays.

The MP for Seputeh said, “In May 2008, the then Gerakan advisor (Lim Keng Yaik) gave an interview to Sin Chew Daily and had likened MCA, Gerakan and MIC to ‘beggars’ in the Barisan Nasional as the coalition did not treat its component parties equitably.”

She explained that Keng Yaik has also said the “arrogance” of Umno had caused all its component parties to fare badly in elections even when candidates stood in non-Malay-majority constituencies.

Saying that Mahathir himself knew better than to believe that Umno, PKR, and PAS had to beg for DAP’s support to win the general election, Teresa brushed this off as Mahathir’s usual “doomsday scare tactic” to rally Malays into supporting Umno.

Teresa explained Mahathir had tried this tactic as recently as last year when DAP leader Lim Kit Siang contested against former Johor Menteri Besar Abdul Ghani in Gelang Patah.

Warning Malays that “Lim’s victory would trigger racial clashes that would replace the existing cooperation between the Malay majority and Chinese community”, Teresa said Mahathir was proven wrong because Lim did win there and no such racial clashes erupted.

She also said this was proof that “Malays have changed and the political landscape in the country has changed, yet Mahathir has not changed.”

She said the same of Umno, drawing attention to the many fear- and hate-filled speeches its leaders made at the party’s recent general assembly.