Mah lauds Najib's speech to Chinese as 'positive'
MalaysiaKini.com
Oct 13, 2014

After MCA blamed the media for twisting BN chief Najib Abdul Razak's thorny words to the Chinese community yesterday, Gerakan has chimed in to support the PM.

Gerakan president Mah Siew Keong said Najib's speech was "positive" and said his contentious statements about not helping the Chinese who support the opposition should be taken in context.

"I think that we see prime minister speech as whole, I was also at the (MCA) annual general meeting (AGM), I think the prime minister gave a very positive speech.

"Let's take the whole speech into context, and I think it is correct because there should be less politicking and rhetoric," Mah told a press conference today.

"I think what the prime minister meant is that he wants the support of all communities because the government wants every community to be included," he explained.

This, said the Teluk Intan MP, was in order for everyone to "work together" and focus on the economy and the government's projects, in order to move forward.

"Let us be positive on what he is trying to say, he wants the support, I think is very normal for any prime minister to say that he wants the support of all community," he added.

Najib's lament yesterday that the Chinese community makes demands from the BN government, but yet supports Pakatan Rakyat, caused a storm of indignation.

"(If) you demand (from the government), and you support BN, we will be fair to the Chinese,” Najib was reported saying.

DAP berated MCA for not standing up for the Chinese community and pointed out that regardless of political affiliations, Najib was the prime minister for all Malaysians.

Gerakan wouldn't bar Malaysiakini

On another matter, Mah said the party welcomes all media, including Malaysiakini, to cover its annual general meeting this weekend.

He said he had received messages over the past week inquiring about the matter.

"We are not stopping anybody, Malaysiakini or any paper can come and write what you want, in our AGM," he said.

However, he urged the media to report in a balanced manner and "not just taking one or two lines" as it may not be truthful.

"They have to see the whole context of a speech, just like the prime minister's speech (at MCA's AGM), we should read the whole context of the speech yesterday," he stressed.

Prior to MCA's annual meet, the party singled out Malaysiakini as one of the online media that was to be excluded from covering the event.

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