The DAP has condemned the new Ethnic Relations course, made compulsory for all first-time public university students, as socially divisive rather than forging racial harmony.

Speaking at the party's 40th anniversary dinner in Petaling Jaya last night, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng decribed the course as "full of falsehood" and inclined towards causing hatred among races.

He wanted the Higher Education Ministry to direct all public universities to withdraw the textbook in view of the nation's best interest.

For example, Lim cited a portion of the Ethnic Relations textbook, which refers to the Malaysian Chinese Elections Appeals Committee (Suqiu) as 'extremist'.

"The book states 'such (extremists) demands should no longer exist, in order to defend the harmony that has so far been experienced and to preserve the relations and cooperation between the various races in Malaysia," said Lim.

Another point raised in the textbook which irked the veteran politician was its slant taken on the May 13 riots in 1969 and the Kampung Medan riots in 2001.

"The words used were 'the DAP made up mostly of Chinese, conducted a procession in Kuala Lumpur in which they insulted the uttered statements that upset the Malays'. The textbook then blamed Indian youths for the Kampung Medan incident," he added.

Silent on Umno scandals

However, there were no mention of various corruption scandals involving top Umno members, said Lim without elaborating.

Lim pledged that DAP MPs will take the matters up to Parliament to set the record straight.

"DAP MPs will raise these issues in Parliament to demand that such gross distortions of history and perversion of the truth be removed from the university syllabus," he said.

He added that such a subject did not auger well with calls from within the government to liberalise the higher education system by amending certain provisions in the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA).

"Liberalising the UUCA is clearly a gimmick and a sham when only a biased and a discriminatory syllabus is allowed in universities," opined Lim.

The Higher Education Ministry has made it mandatory for university students to study this subject beginning with this year's academic session and has been criticised by various groups.

In an earlier interview, Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) commissioner and prominent historian Prof Dr Khoo Kay Kim reminded that it was Barisan Nasional component party Gerakan which led a volatile procession through the Kampung Baru area in Kuala Lumpur which eventually led to the May 13 riots.