The Umno treasurer said this in a statement today in response to the veteran DAP lawmaker’s remark in his blog post on Sunday that “Najib’s propagandists shy away from a public debate, including on television live” on the topic of accusations levelled at the DAP by Umno.
“Maybe Kit Siang has forgotten he is not even the leader of Pakatan Harapan so that does not put him at the same level as the prime minister, who is the chairman of Barisan Nasional.
“Maybe, he should first take over as Pakatan Harapan’s leader from Dr Wan Azizah and officially announce he is Pakatan’s shadow prime minister before challenging Najib to a debate,” Salleh said in response to the statement from Lim.
In his blog post, the Gelang Patah MP brought up the accusations by Umno that DAP was anti-Islam and anti-Malay, as well as that the next general election will be a contest between Umno and DAP, and questioned why there was no rebuttal over his response to such “lies”.
Lim and his party have gone to great lengths to ensure they are not seen as a Chinese-dominant party despite the leadership base and composition of its main committee.
More importantly, the elevation of more Malay candidates in the last general election and at by-elections were part of its efforts to show the party is not anti-Islam and anti-Malay as claimed.
Also, in conjunction with its Pakatan Harapan partners, PKR and Amanah, DAP has continually reassured the Malay community that it would not be able to form the government on its own.