I said at the opening of the DAP parliamentary service centre in Gelang Patah yesterday that we are in a new phase in politics in Malaysia in post-14th General Election, as UMNO leaders and cybertroopers under former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak have abandoned all pretensions of moderation, balance and 1Malaysian attitude to sabotage the Pakatan Harapan government, hoping that the Pakatan Harapan government in Putrajaya and in the various states would not last the full term, crack and disintegrate to allow UMNO to return to power before 15GE.

I must thank the former UMNO Deputy Minister, Tajuddin Rahman (MP for Pasir Salak) for confirming that post-14GE, UMNO leaders and cybertroopers under Najib had launched a “scorched-earth” policy to take the vicious and toxic politics of race, religion, hate, fear and lies to an extremity never seen in Malaysia before.

In an eve of Sungai Kandis by-election gathering, Tajuddin made the wild, preposterous, reckless, most incendiary and seditious allegation that the DAP has an agenda to Christianise Malaysia, that that the DAP and “Christian-led Pakatan Harapan government” would want to abolish the Malay monarchy and establish a republic.

He claimed that there is a video featuring Christian pastors celebrating Pakatan Harapan’s victory during the May 9 general election, on the ground that the Christians have taken over Putrajaya and other states.

I am not aware that there is such a video. Did Tajuddin concoct such an irresponsible story out of thin air?

I challenge Tajuddin to produce such a video, or he must be condemned and repudiated by all Malaysians, including all UMNO and Barisan Nasional leaders, as utterly irresponsible and disreputable, and UMNO should issue a show-cause letter to Tajuddin why he should not be expelled from UMNO for such a most irresponsible anti-Malaysian utterances – unless UMNO and Barisan Nasional leaders want to adopt or associate with Tajuddin’s irresponsible utterances by their silence.

Tajuddin accused DAP Ministers are dominated by Christians like Anthony Loke, Tony Pua and Hannah Yeoh.

I am not aware that Tony Pua and Hannah Yeoh are Ministers, but let me educate Tajuddin that although Tony Pua and Anthony Loke have Christian names, they are not Christians and Tajuddin has committed an unpardonable political sin in Malaysia in accusing the Cabinet as controlled by Christian evangelists when there is not even an iota of truth in the allegation.

What is also most unpardonable is that after more than half a century of Malaysian nation-building, Tajuddin is trying to perpetuate the misconception that a Christian or non-Muslim is anti-Islam, a Chinese or Indian is anti-Malay – undermining the very basis of Malaysia as a multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi- religious and multi-cultural nation and that our very diversity in ethnicity, religions, languages and cultures is an unique asset for the nation and not a liability.

I do not believe that a Malay is anti-Chinese, anti-Indian, anti-Kadazan, anti-Iban in the same way that I do not believe that a good Muslim is anti-Christianity, anti-Buddhism, anti-Hinduism, anti-Sikkhism or anti-Taoism.

If Malaysia is to be a “beacon of light in a disturbed and distracted world”, as Bapa Malaysia Tunku Abdul Rahman said on Merdeka Day on 31st August 1957, Tajuddin’s politics of race, religion, fear, hate and lies should have no place in Malaysia in 2018.

I hope that the voters of Sungai Kandis will produce a result in the by-election which can send a clear and unmistakable message that Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region, have no time for Tajuddin’s politics of race, religion, hate, fear and lies as we want to build a New Malaysia where Malaysia can be “a beacon of light in a disturbed and distracted world” and not a zone of darkness of kleptocracy and kakistocracy.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah on Saturday, August 4, 2018)