Media statement (2) by Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Wednesday, 2^nd June 2010: 

Najib's most difficult question in the forthcoming five-week parliamentary meeting - how many Cabinet Ministers are Malaysian first, race second in keeping with 1Malaysia policy

I have posed what is probably the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's most difficult question in the forthcoming 22-day parliamentary meeting:

"How many Ministers in his Cabinet, naming them, regard himself/herself as Malaysian first, race second in keeping with the 1Malaysia policy".

It will test Najib to the limit of his intellectual prowess and political acumen to answer this question, as he will have to be a David Copperfield political magician to try to "square the circle" in view of two diametrically polar positions:

• The declaration of the 1Malaysia Government Transformation Programme Roadmap that the goal of 1Malaysia is to create "a nation where every Malaysian perceives himself or herself as Malaysian first, and by race, religion, geographical region or socio-economic background second"; and

• The declaration by the Deputy Prime Minister and UMNO Deputy President Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in December last year that he is Malay first, Malaysian second!

Will Najib be honest and give a frank and straightforward answer to this question, without ifs and buts?

Or will he try to evade it by resorting to the classic Barisan Nasional parliamentary tactic of getting the question rejected on the spurious ground that it has run afoul of one Standing Order or another?

We will know soon enough how Najib handles this question, which I deem as his most difficult question in the forthcoming six-week parliamentary meeting from Monday June 8 to July 13, which has the 11-day debate on the Tenth Malaysia Plan as its centerpiece.

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