— Perkasa secretary-general Syed Hassan Syed Ali has labelled Lim Guan Eng (picture) a cowardly gangster and a communist for calling for reinforcements in a gang fight against one.
The Malay rights lobbyist was responding to the DAP secretary-general’s open call yesterday inviting all “non-Umno” members in the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) to set aside political differences and unite to oppose their common enemy — Datuk Ibrahim Ali.
“DAP is willing to work with all Malaysians, including non-Umno component members in BN, to oppose this crusade and demand action against Utusan Malaysia and Ibrahim Ali’s reckless opportunism and irresponsible adventurism,” Lim said in his Wesak Day message yesterday.
The Penang chief minister said Malaysians were outraged by the Home Ministry’s inaction against both Ibrahim for his threat and Umno’s Utusan Malaysia for publishing unsubstantiated reports of a presumed plot between DAP and Christian leaders to usurp Islam as the religion of the federation.
Syed Hassan said Lim’s call was clearly the culture of “cowardly gangsters inviting his friends to a fight against one”.
He questioned how the opposition leader planned to “fight” the Perkasa president.
“Physically … ? Cowards such as these are like the communists hiding in the jungle or hiding in society disguised as a civilian or a member of an NGO or with certain political parties,” he said in a statement today.
“And more dangerous is the coward who wears the mask of a certain religion when in fact there is no religion he believes in,” the Perkasa man added.
Syed Hassan said Lim’s statement was yet another provocation from the majority-Chinese DAP against the Malay-Muslim community and proved the opposition party were the ones who started the racial tension and not Perkasa.
He said his group was only responding in kind and there would have been no need for the founding of Perkasa if the non-Malays and non-Muslims were not so bold as to “openly insult Islam”.
“The Perkasa president’s statement calling for jihad is only if they continue touching on Islam.
Muslims are compelled to jihad if Islam is insulted and if Islam is to be destroyed,” Syed Hassan said.
He said the DAP were openly testing Perkasa’s patience and warned the party not to rouse Ibrahim’s anger further.
“We may be patient but we cannot guarantee our members will contain their anger.
“This statement is a result of Guan Eng’s call. So don’t say my statement is dangerous or could cause chaos,” he said.
