Mind your own business, Gerakan tells Kuan Yew
Malaysiakini
Sep 22, 2006
Alwin Yap

Gerakan today ticked off Singapore’s Mentor Minister Lee Kuan Yew over his remarks that Chinese Malaysians had been “systematically marginalised” because they were successful and hardworking.

Party president Lim Keng Yaik and his deputy, Koh Tsu Koon, both lambasted Lee for making comments without having the full facts and accused him of causing racial tensions here.

Lim, who is also the minister of energy, water and telecommunications, said the former Singapore premier had a habit of making statements which infuriate Malaysians over the last 40 years.

When asked to speculate as to Lee’s reason for the latest remark, a visibly upset Lim said: “You go ask him-lah!”.

He said Lee was wrong in making such statements, and he urged reporters to report that Lee “was wrong, wrong.”

His heir apparent, Koh, who sitting next to him at today’s press conference, added that Lee should understand the challenges Malaysian leaders had in governing a much larger country which, unlike Singapore, has far-flung states such as Sabah and Sarawak.

The Chinese-majority Gerakan is a senior partner in the Barisan Nasional coalition and is the ruling party in Penang.

Koh, the Penang chief minister, also said the Malaysian government - at both federal and state level - was committed to bring economic development to all races.

“However, it’s not uncommon, even in developed countries, to have pockets of places like rural areas that are not yet developed,” he said.

He said the government had focused on bringing development to these areas so that ‘no ethnicity’ would feel they were sidelined.

Koh added that Chinese Malaysians, like their other fellow citizens, also have more freedom than those in Singapore in expressing their views to the mass media.

According to Koh, the non-Malay component political parties within the BN coalition often spoke out in the cabinet or Parliament on issues involving Chinese and Indians communities.

Koh has recently came under severe attack from his Umno colleagues for marginalising Penang Malays in his state.

Being naughty

At the press conference, both Lim and Koh echoed views expressed by Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak yesterday that Lee was being “naughty” in making statements that were inaccurate and have serious political implications.

“I do not know the reason he made such a statement but it should not have been made at all. It’s a comment that we can do without, and it is not appreciated at all,” said Najib.

“We do not sideline the non-bumiputera in this country. What are in place are efforts to create a balance between the bumiputera and the non-bumiputera,” added the deputy prime minister.

Last Friday, Lee was quoted in the media as saying that it was vital for the predominantly ethnic Chinese Singapore to stand up to its bigger, majority Muslim neighbours, Indonesia
and Malaysia.

He added that the attitude of neighbouring Malaysia and Indonesia towards Singapore was shaped by the way they treated their own ethnic Chinese minorities.

Lee had said that these two nations had problems with their Chinese communities because they were successful and hardworking and “therefore, they are systematically marginalised.”

Indonesia and Malaysia “want Singapore, to put it simply, to be like their Chinese - compliant”, added Lee.

Gerakan’s university

Earlier, Lim launched Gerakan’s very own university - the Penang-based Wawasan Open University, which offers distance learning in IT, Science and Business degrees.

The university was officially launched by Higher Education Minister Mustapa Mohamed who said Lim’s vision and guidance in setting up the university was ‘the climax’ of his 30-year political career.

Lim, 67, said the entry requirements to the university were meant for adults who wanted another chance to get a university degree.

“I told my wife, now that I’m going to retire, she better find something to do. Our children all have got degrees, so I told her to get a degree too. She’s (however) above the university’s entry requirement age of 21,” he told a packed hall.

He hinted that his wife would be qualified to enroll in the Wawasan University as it caters for students over the age of 21 with minimum PMR, SPM or Chinese school UEC qualifications.

The online courses offered by the university is targeted at mature-aged students who have working experience and who want to get a professional degree.

After serving as Gerakan president for 26 years, Lim will be handing the post over to Koh next April.