Media statement by Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Thursday, 2^nd September 2010: 

Before Khairy demands that Wee Meng Chee be taught a lesson, will he surrender himself to the police for criminal charges to be preferred against him for his previous racist statements?

I had said that Wee Meng Chee can be faulted for being crude, vulgar, abusive and even obscene at the disgust and fury of his 3-minute rap video directed at the school principal of Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra, Kulai, Hajah Siti Inshah binti Mansor, for making racist, derogatory and seditious remarks like: “Pelajar-pelajar Cina tidak diperlukan dan boleh balik ke China ataupun Sekolah Foon Yew. Bagi pelajar India, tali sembahyang yang diikat di pergelangan tangan dan leher pelajar nampak seakan anjing dan hanya anjing akan mengikat seperti itu.”

However, the police has still to explain why they are investigating Wee for sedition when there is nothing seditious in his rap video against the Kulai and Bukit Selambau school principals for making racist slurs against students especially when the school principals concerned are still scot-free for their seditious statements.

I had myself been arrested and investigated for sedition and DAP National Chairman Karpal Singh had been arrested, charged and acquitted of sedition – just two examples of the gross abuse of powers and double-standards in the country.

With a new Inspector-General of Police set to take over the police force in ten days’ time, the opportunity to restore public confidence in the efficiency, professionalism and integrity of the Malaysian police force must not be missed or wasted – and there is no better start than to demonstrate to all and sundry, whether within or outside the country, that the Malaysian police is mindful that it should not be accused of being guilty of double-standards in enforcing and upholding the law.

Yesterday, Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin jumped on a line in Wee’s rap video “Nah” to justify his demand that criminal proceeding should be instituted against Wee.

Khairy is wrong as the line "You tak baca? Siapa buat Malaysia kaya?" (Don't you know? Who made Malaysia prosperous?) is open to various interpretation and not just Khairy’s conclusion that it is an overt insinuation that Malays played a minor role in Malaysia’s economic growth and was therefore racist in nature.

There is no need to spark a debate as to who had contributed to the country’s economic development or to hark back to the oft-quoted statement by former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad that the Chinese in Malaysia pay 90 per cent of the taxes in the country.

This is because the line quoted by Khairy could mean that Malaysia’s prosperity is the contribution of all Malaysians and that’s why it is completely unacceptable to tell the Chinese in Malaysia to “balik tongsan”, firstly because all Malaysians contributed to the economic development of the country; and secondly, after 53 years of Merdeka the Malaysian Chinese are 100% Malaysians who have no “tongsan” to go back to!

Before Khairy demands that Wee should be taught a lesson, will he surrender himself to the police for criminal charges to be preferred against him for his previous racist statements, whether his uncalled-for attack on the Indian community during a live telecast at the Umno General Assembly in November 2007 or his infamous outburst about the so-called marginalization of the Malays in Penang under Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon as Penang Chief Minister?

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