Take a clear stand, DAP urged

PETALING JAYA: As the comic book produced by former DAP member Dr Hew Kuan Yau continues to draw flak, a Johor DAP leader has urged the party to come out with a clearer policy to avoid it from being mired in a “shallow” political agenda.

Referring to the controversial Belt and Road Initiative for Win Winism, Mahdzir Ibrahim, who is a Johor DAP committee member, said several DAP assemblymen had shown support for the book, which led to the rakyat’s perception that it was the party’s official stand on the issue.

“I’d like to suggest to DAP to provide a clearer and stern policy to prevent this incident from recurring or being associated with the party until it tarnishes its image.“While we respect the freedom of expression, we should not allow such freedom to disturb the rakyat’s sentiments,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Mahdzir added that DAP and its elected representatives had a bigger task in tackling issues concerning the rakyat, instead of “being dragged into shallow political agenda by certain quarters within the party”.

Meanwhile, the Peninsular Malaysia Malay Students Federation (GPMS) has urged Dr Maszlee Malik not to bow to the DAP grassroots’ demands. They said this in response to the call by “43 DAP grassroots leaders and several state assemblymen” to the Education Minister to rescind his instruction to withdraw the book from schools.

Its president Mohd Alif Anas Md Noor said there was no reason for Maszlee to cater to DAP’s request since the party itself had said it had nothing to do with the comic.“In fact, an official statement from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has also denied allegations that the comic has significant value in Malaysia-China bilateral relations,” he said in a statement yesterday.

PMO has stated that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was not involved in publishing the book nor knew its contents.

“GPMS found the contents of the propaganda comic to be biased and did not meet the Education Ministry’s standard curriculum on the history of Malaysia-China relations,” he added.

In Pontian, Johor, Maszlee said the ministry was only following the rules and advice of the Home Ministry when it decided not to allow the controversial book form being distributed to schools nationwide.

“Malaysia has laws where all printed materials including books or comics, whether they are political or propaganda, should go through proper procedures if they need to be circulated,” he said after officiating Jom Sekolah 2020 programme at SMK Tanjung Kerang yesterday.The comic book allegedly contains propaganda material that vilifies Barisan Nasional while putting DAP on a pedestal.

It made headlines recently after former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak labelled it as “DAP propaganda” and raised questions as to whether it was appropriate to be distributed to schools.Hew defended the book, saying it was aimed at educating the students about the initiative. In a Facebook post on Oct 17, the Malaysia-China Business Council CEO also said 2,500 copies of the Bahasa Malaysia version would be distributed to schools’ resource centres to encourage students to gain knowledge about the community and not to spread political ideology.

The police said they were recording statements from relevant parties on the matter.

On Friday, Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said a preliminary report by the ministry’s security department found something amiss with the comic and that it was appropriate for stern action to be taken against those who published and distributed the comic.The comic book also drew brickbats from Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, who slammed Hew as being racist and for allegedly labelling Malays who sympathised with the plight of China’s Uighurs as “radicals”.

MCA secretary-general Datuk Chong Sin Woon also hit out at the comic which “poisons the minds of our students”.

“There are all kinds of things in this comic, including celebrating Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, insulting former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and MCA,” he said.