KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 11 — While politicians swap racial rhetoric, DAP leader Lim Guan Eng said today that only those who can offer better economic opportunities will secure the vote in the next national election that must be held by 2018.

Amid the recent racial flare-ups between the dominant Malays and the ethnic Chinese as the country’s economy took a battering from global market forces due to a slowdown in exports and the ringgit slide, the DAP secretary-general sought to persuade voters that the new Pakatan Harapan pact comprising his party, PKR and the Islamist Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) were their best bet for a brighter future.

“The next general elections will be won on who can offer a better economic future.

“All the rhetoric about having clean leadership would not be relevant if we become bankrupt or there is no competent economic management to improve the people’s lives, whether to help the poor, assist flood victims, provide better services and better education,” he said in his speech at the Johor DAP convention in Batu Pahat today.

A copy of his speech was emailed to the media.

Lim who is also Penang chief minister held up his party’s administration of Penang as a model of economic advancement in the last seven years, through an “inclusive” economic policy that aimed to nurture youth education and better their economic prospects in a bid to close the income gap regardless of the people’s racial background.

In his speech, he trumpeted Penang’s success in narrowing the income inequality by 12 per cent in the last three years, slashing the state debt pile by 90 per cent while doubling its annual reserves, with the total surpluses between 2008 and 2013 recorded at RM453 million, about half which have since been returned to the people through the state’s social welfare programmes for the poor and other vulnerable groups.

One of the latest achievements for the state was the launch of a German vocational training programme last month that essentially paid youths to continue their studies even as they worked and earned a steady monthly wage.

“The Pakatan Harapan state government’s performance in Penang have shown that we can unite the people around competent economic management through inclusive economic growth that benefits all.

“If we can do it in Penang, Pakatan Harapan can definitely replicate that success throughout Malaysia to save our troubled economy and restore dignity to us all,” the Bagan MP said.