‘Making DAP the bogeyman will fail’

G-force: Raggie (seated, second from left) with (seated from left) G3 vice chairman 1 Amran Abu Bakar, G3 adviser Datuk Azwanddin Hamzah and deputy chairman Amran Ahmad Nor.

KUALA LUMPUR: Making DAP the bogeyman to push a racist agenda would surely fail, says a DAP leader and deputy minister.

DAP Segambut MP and Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Hannah Yeoh said for years Umno made DAP the bogeyman to forward its racist agenda, only to be rejected by Malaysians during the last general election after decades in power.

“The Gagasan Kuasa 3 (G3) which vows to destroy DAP is similar to the Umno movement which all these years made DAP the bogeyman,” she said.

“But Malaysians are smarter nowadays and voted Umno out. Today, DAP is in power in Putrajaya alongside a multiracial coalition looking after the interests of Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans and many others.

“People can see through all these political sounding statements with an NGO veil over it,” said Yeoh.

She was commenting on G3, a new coalition, which has been formed to “destroy DAP to save the Muslims” and because it thinks the party is racist.

G3 is headed by blogger Ragvinder Singh Jess, better known as Raggie Jessy.

The group of Malay Muslim NGOs banded together yesterday to form a “third force alliance” and lambasted DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang, alleging that he is racist.

Raggie said G3 is currently made up of 53 Malay Muslim NGOs, but expects to have 300 Malay Muslim NGOs in the next three months.

Among those at the press conference to show support on the formation of G3 were various Malay Muslim NGOs such as Pertubuhan Jaringan Melayu Malaysia President Datuk Azwanddin Hamzah, who is also G3 adviser, Ariffin Abu Bakar and Abdul Rani Kulup Abdullah.

Raggie said the ratification of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) was an issue brought up by the DAP to “purposely shame” Malay Muslims.

“ICERD is not about race but about religion because in Malaysia, if you are Malay, you must be a Muslim,” said Raggie.

Malaysia has made no move to ratify ICERD despite calls from civil society.

G3 deputy president Amran Ahmad Nor, who was sacked by DAP before GE14, claimed that DAP would raise more issues other than Chinese schools and ICERD to upset the Malays.

The coalition has submitted its application to the Registrar of Societies to be recognised as an NGO.

G3 also announced 5,000 of its supporters will participate in the Dec 8 anti-ICERD protest organised by Umno and PAS.