PETALING JAYA (June 7): Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim labelled attacks by Lim Guan Eng that Umno was a racist party as “hilarious”, considering DAP itself was “chauvinistic”.

The party’s former vice-chairman said Lim should ask himself what DAP has contributed towards racial harmony and slammed its claim of championing various races as “empty rhetoric”.

“If we look at the party it is only for the Chinese. Ask those who have left DAP, even the Chinese say the DAP is racist,” he said in Utusan Malaysia today.

Tunku Abdul Aziz was responding to Lim’s statement where the DAP secretary general had said that Umno’s refusal become an inclusive party or accept other races showed it wanted divide the races and to maintain its grip on power.

He also said Lim should focus on resolving DAP’s internal problems, in particular the Central Executive Committee (CEC) election fiasco and protests made against the leadership.

On Jan 4, Lim revealed that there were errors in the tabulation of votes in the party's election last year that were caused by a technical glitch.

The amendments resulted in Lim's political secretary, Zairil Khir Johari, moving up from 39th position to 20th, which is the last elected position in the party's CEC. Disgruntled members later lodged complaints with the Registrar of Societies (RoS), claiming that the results were manipulated.

“Guan Eng is not qualified to have an opinion about other parties when he himself cannot resolve DAP’s internal problems,” he was quoted as saying.

In a separate article, Utusan Malaysia reported that MIC deputy strategic director Datuk R Ramanan challenged DAP’s top leadership to resign if allegations the party had held its AGM without issuing a notice to several of its branches.

Ramanan said it was compulsory for the likes of Lim, DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang and the national organising secretary Anthony Loke to welcome the challenge to prove that the party had no hidden agenda.

“I would not make such a call if I had no evidence, hence I challenge them to step down if I can prove that the AGM was held without notices given to several branches,” he said.

The Malay daily reported yesterday that a senior leader in DAP claimed the AGM wanted to hit back at branches which had previously voiced its dissatisfaction over the appointment of CEC members last year.