Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has chided the country's No 2 leader for allowing himself to be misled by lies spread in an Umno blog over his recent Easter message.

Lim dared Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to respond whether it was wrong for anyone to oppose Hitler or Hilterian areas of racial supremacy or dominance.

The DAP national secretary-general also threw a challenge at BN politicians to state whether the Federal Constitution supports or permits racial supremacy or dominance.

NONEDAP and Pakatan Rakyat, Lim said, only believed in 'supremacy of the rakyat' while opposing any kind of racial dominance, whether it be by the Chinese, Indians or Malays.

He reiterated his Easter message that children should be given hope, taught love and their confidence built and not made to feel inferior or left behind merely on account of their skin colour.

Malaysians despair when some politicians tell children that they can never be good enough, that they need special rights and favours to survive just because of the colour of their skin.

Malaysian parents, Lim added, were also anguished that no matter how well their child performed, he or she would never be chosen and rewarded on account of the colour of the skin.

"How do we build up a child's confidence if we instil this sense of inferiority that they need special assistance, especially when this special assistance never comes?" he asked at a press conference in Penang today.

Principles of democracy

"How do you explain to your little girl why she cannot get a place in a premier institution even though she scores good results?"

Lim was responding to a Bernama report yesterday quoting Muhyiddin as saying that Lim's remark about Malaysia practising Nazi doctrines was not based on reality but laced with political motives.

Muhyiddin said BN's policies were founded on the principles of democracy, were pro-business and flexible to suit the times.

He said this when commenting on the rebuke by blogger Minda Intelek Melayu who accused Lim of saying that the country was adopting Hitler supremacist policies.

The blogger claimed that Lim uttered the remarks in his Easter message last Sunday.

NONELim then provided excerpts of his message, which quoted him as saying, among others: "We should move away from the mind-trap of fear based on hate, racism, extremism. We should not be taught to fear diversity.

"We should not be brainwashed with Hitlerian ideas that one is superior to another merely because of the colour of our skin."

Lim today also compared the success of neighbouring Singapore in surpassing Malaysia for the first time in 2010 as the third largest economy in Asean, after Indonesia and Thailand.

He said that despite having no natural resources, Singapore's GDP last year grew to US$210 billion, compared with Malaysia's US$205 billion.

Malaysia is 478 times the size of the republic and its population, at 27 million, is five times larger than its tiny neighbour's 4.8 million, he added.

"Can Malaysia catch up when Singapore's GDP per capita was US$36,537 (up from US$512 in 1965) compared with Malaysia's US$ 6,975 (or US$335 in 1965)?" he asked.

"We can, if we start building human talent and retaining them.... we must give hope that our children can live better than their parents. Let us inspire hope by stressing on performance, not privilege, expertise, not entitlement and integrity, not corruption," he said.