Gerakan chides Zahid, warns BN against making careless remarks

TELUK INTAN, May 27 — Gerakan has followed MIC in warning Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders against making careless remarks that can be spun out of context by the media.

Speaking in the aftermath of Umno’s Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s remarks calling successful ethnic Chinese “ingrates” for voting DAP, Gerakan leaders said the minister had not intended to insult the ethnic group.

“[It was an] uncalled-for statement,” said Penang Gerakan chief Teng Chang Yeow, referring to Zahid’s remark against the Chinese.

Gerakan secretary-general Liang Teck Meng claimed that Zahid’s remark was part of a bigger speech.

“I urge BN leaders to be careful with their speech, make sure that part of their conversations or speeches are not simply cut out of the whole speech and then spun and twisted,” said Liang.

This comes as MIC today warned Zahid against calling Indian voters in Teluk Intan “ingrates” as that could simply drive voters away from the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.

According to MIC chief Datuk Seri S. Subramaniam, BN component parties are advised against offending other races in their attempt to win votes.

Perak-born Ahmad Zahid had said yesterday that Chinese Malaysians who vote for the opposition DAP, after becoming economically successful, are “ingrates”.

The Home Minister appeared to suggest that the Malay and Indian community would be left behind economically if DAP wins the Teluk Intan seat again, but did not give further explanation.

In response, DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang said today that elected lawmakers who treat voters with contempt are the real “ingrates”.

According to Lim, ministers who behave like Zahid feel that they have a “divine right” to act just because of their elected posts.

Zahid’s speech comes just barely days before this Saturday’s contest for the Teluk Intan seat, which has been won by DAP for two straight terms since it snatched the Perak seat from BN’s Datuk Mah Siew Keong in 2008.

Mah, a former deputy minister, had served two terms as Teluk Intan MP after winning it in 1999 and 2004.

In campaigning for Mah, Zahid contrasted a DAP victory in Teluk Intan against a win by ruling coalition BN, saying that all ethnic groups would be able to develop northern Perak by voting for the Gerakan president.