Temperatures in Parliament soared again as Barisan MPs vehemently protested Lim Kit Siang's admonishment that Malaysia is not having a festive Merdeka because of Umno.

The senior parliamentarian from Ipoh Timur pointed his accusatory finger at the divisive race politics stoked by Umno, especially its youth wing.

raja petra court case 060508 lim kit siang Lim was responding to Deputy Minister of Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage Teng Boon Soon's reply to Mohd Jidin Shafiee (BN-Setiu) during question time - who asked what is the state of unity in the country and what is being planned to enhance national unity.

The DAP veteran included Gerakan and MCA in his critic.

"Is this caused by racist policies practiced by Umno Youth especially when they keep talking about Malay rights and Malay supremacy?

"Don't MCA and Gerakan see this as a failure of national integrity in this country?," said Lim, visibly upsetting Barisan MPs.

Puad Zarkashi (BN-Batu Pahat) rose in protest, and exclaimed, "DAP is being racist too!"

BN legislators thumped their tables in support to this sneering remark.

'This is not China'

Teng attempted to placate Lim by saying national integrity should not be being carried out by instilling fear in the general public.

However, an unrelenting Lim pressed on, "Is this 'Malay unity' slogan by Umno Youth not instilling fear in people's minds too?"

This led to exchange involving Lim and two parliamentarians from Umno.

Lilah Yasin (BN-Jempol): This is not China!

Lim: You are the traitor to national integrity! (pointing at Lilah).

Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (BN-Pasir Salak): You are instigating the people!

Lim: This is Malaysia, Malaysia with one race!

Speaker (Pandikar Amin Mulia): Ipoh Timur, sit down. Pasir Salak, sit down. A good question should be followed by a good response. Why do you all have to react this way?

Lim: He (the deputy minister) has not even answered my question!

Things cooled off as the speaker forced proceedings to move to the next question.

Not discriminatory policy

The next question was by Nga Kor Ming (DAP-Taiping) who asked how the government intended to promote and achieve national integrity when there was discrimination and divisiveness in dividing citizens into bumiputera and non-bumiputera.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz brushed-off Nga's query saying it was necessary, otherwise some groups would be aggrieved.

"We should accept the fact that bumiputera rights is to stabilise (the races) in this country. Whether or not this is discriminatory, the question does not arise because this has been stated in the Federal Constitution," said Nazri.

He went further and said if bumiputera rights wasn't unacceptable to anybody, they use their legislative prerogative to act.

"You can always table a motion to amend the Federal Constitution in regards to bumiputera rights, then we can sit down and talk on how to improve it," said Nazri.