KUALA LUMPUR, May 11 — MCA publicity chief Datuk Chai Kim Sen today prodded DAP’s Lim Lip Eng to say if his public reversal on a sedition probe against Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) meant he concurred with the Islamist group’s allegation against the Chinese community.

Chai today pointed out that while Isma president Abdullah Zaik Abd Rahman was unrepentant in his categorisation of Chinese influx into Malaya as a “mistake” despite criticism, Lim — who was among the first to seek action against the Abdullah Zaik — has since given up his position

“In MCA, we are consistent in condemning such remarks by the Isma chief and we maintain that the police must probe and charge him for sedition. If DAP has principles, it must stick to its stand of repudiating Isma rather than portraying Isma as ‘victims’,” Chai said in a statement today.

He then accused Lim and the DAP of reversing its demand that Abdullah Zaik be investigated under the Sedition Act in a bid to pander to the Malay vote ahead of the Bukit Gelugor by-election on May 25.

“While one recognises that Malaysia must move towards the democratic ideals of freedom of speech, but such freedom come with responsibility and it is not a blank cheque to simply sputter racial prejudice or provoke the public or provoke one community against the other,” Chai added.

Yesterday, Lim issued a statement to “condemn any effort to investigate and prosecute ISMA for sedition.”

This was a departure from Lim’s remarks on Wednesday when accompanying Kampung Tunku assemblyman Lau Weng San to lodge a police report against Isma for provoking “racial disharmony” in the country.

“I hope it is not an empty promise. I hope they seriously look into and stern action be taken against the party who make this provoking, seditious statement,” Lim told The Malay Mail Online when asked about the police’s plan to investigate the group for sedition.

On Tuesday, ISMA president Abdullah Zaik Abd Rahman said the influx of Chinese migrants into Malaya had been “a mistake” that must be rectified, but stopped short of saying how this could be achieved.

He said that the ethnic group were considered intruders into Malay land, and had been brought by British colonialists to oppress Malays.

Yesterday, DAP leaders insisted that the call for Isma to be probed for sedition was meant to highlight the allegedly selective use of the colonial era law against opposition members, after the party was accused of hypocrisy for demanding action under the law that it wants repealed.