MCA has criticised DAP for playing the race card in the run-up to the Sarawak state election, which it described as appalling politics.

Ti Lian Ker was responding to a video of DAP's Hew Kuan Yau, who is known among his supporters as 'Superman' for regularly donning a T-shirt of the comic book hero.

During the campaign for the Sarawak election, Hew, in a ceramah over Skype, had urged Chinese voters in Batu Kitang to back DAP's candidate Abdul Aziz Isa.

He said if elected, Aziz would "screw the Malays" themselves, "screw the corrupt Malay officials" and "screw the PBB pok kai (scum) themselves".

"This would be a good show for us to watch, don't you agree?" he asked the audience in the Chinese language speech.

An excerpt of the video has been circulating on social media, drawing flak from netizens. It was first uploaded by blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin. The full video was posted on Hew's Facebook.

While the Malay subtitles in the excerpt were not completely accurate, Hew, however, had said, “Send Abdul Aziz to the state assembly to screw the Malays.”

Contacted later, the DAP man claimed the video was "twisted" and promised to issue a clarification.

'DAP often harps on racial, religious sentiments'

Commenting further, Ti (photo) said it is unfortunate that DAP often plays this tune, harping on racial and religious sentiments.

"They are just a multi-racial party by name but they stoke racism in most of their speeches, particularly when speaking to a Chinese crowd," the MCA central committee leader said.

"The truth is that they have failed as a multi-racial party but they have been getting away with it because of emotions and chauvinism.

"Somehow people overlook their ugliness when looking at the bigger picture of wanting a change," Ti said.

DAP has often been accused by its rivals, especially Umno, of wanting to undermine the position of the Malays, a charge its top leaders have repeatedly denied.

In a bid to counter such allegations and shed its Chinese-centric image, DAP has been recruiting more Malays into its fold and fielding them as election candidates.

Batu Kitang saw DAP naming Aziz at the eleventh hour, in retaliation against PKR refusing to budge from contesting against it as well in five other seats.

The breakdown in seat negotiations witnessed the allies battling each other in six constituencies, all of which were lost to BN.

In Batu Kitang, BN's Lo Khere Chiang won the seat with 6,494 votes, while Aziz managed to get 4,628 votes and PKR's Voon Shiak Ni 889 votes.

Aziz when contacted claimed Hew's statement was twisted.

"What Superman said was if I'm elected in Batu Kitang, I will be the Malay representative that will screw corrupt Malays in Sarawak.

"They are trying to divert issues, such as 1MDB and GST, because we are going to face two by-elections," Aziz told Malaysiakini when contacted.

Later, Hew responded, accusing BN cybertroopers of mistranslating what he said to incite Malays against DAP.

Malaysia Today's versionHew Kuan Yau's version