“We want a Chinese to accept our memorandum and not a Malay,” a member of the group said to Selangor DAP official Edry Faisal Yusof and several other Malay members of the party.

“The Malays have nothing to do with this,” said another protester. “Do not sell the Malays’ dignity. We do not want Malays to be servants, we do not want Malays to be traitors.

“Don’t force us to make this building go up in smoke.”

The 30-odd activists were led by Mohd Ali Baharom, also known as Ali Tinju.

The memorandum told Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng to go on leave to give room for the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate allegations of impropriety in his purchase of a bungalow.

The protesters shouted words to the effect that Lim was a corrupt official as Edry and his team tried to greet them when they arrived at the scene.

Police eventually managed to pacify them and Ali Tinju agreed to meet the DAP team.

During the meeting, Ali told the DAP representatives to read all the demands made in the memorandum and claimed that he had no intention of being hostile to the Chinese.

The Red Shirts refused to accept a memorandum of response from DAP. “We don’t want to read it,” said one of them as he crumpled it and tossed it to the ground. Several protesters stomped their feet on it.

They dispersed after nearly an hour of protest.