DAP veteran leader Lim Kit Siang today blasted former minister and Umno parliamentarian for Rompin Jamaluddin Jarjis for accusing the former of making racial slurs in Parliament early this week.

Lim said Jamaluddin, the former science, technology and innovation minister, had misled the House by falsely claiming that he (Lim) had said that 'the Malays treated the Chinese like slaves' on Monday.

jamaluddin jarjis 00 "Jamaluddin was being most mischievous, irresponsible and racist when he deliberately repeated at least ten times in various variation of the false accusation," Lim told a press conference this morning at the Parliament lobby.

Lim said that Jamaluddin had accused him of saying those remarks "to try to paint me as a racist and anti Malay".

"He was the one who was demonstrating his worst communal colours," said Lim.

Moreover, the Ipoh Timor DAP parliamentarian added that a check of the minutes of the Parliament seating on Monday revealed that he had said nothing of that sort.

"This is gross breach of parliamentary privileges, compounded by his (Jamaluddin) deliberate repetition of the lie ten times, hoping to turn a lie into a truth by sheer repetition," added Lim.

He added that he will also be moving motion to challenge and review the ruling of Deputy Speaker Ronald Kiandee in condoning Jamaluddin's gross breach of parliamentary privilege.

lim kit siang 201108 Lim further said that if it was a Pakatan Rakyat parliamentarian who had committed the breach, the MP would have been suspended and referred to the Committee of Privileges for serious disciplinary action.

"Why should there be one rule for Pakatan Rakyat MPs and another for Barisan Nasional MPs in the Malaysian Parliament?" asked Lim.

"It is most pertinent that when I asked in the House on Monday whether Umno MPs would support the concept of 'ketuanan rakyat Malaysia'... there was total silence and strenuous evasion with Jamaluddin trying to distract the issue by lying," said Lim.

Allow petrol competition

At the same press conference Petaling Jaya Utara DAP MP Tony Pua called for the government to let fuel retailers to compete to offer fuel prices of their choice.

tony pua Pua told reporters that the fuel prices at the United States of America have fallen to RM1.742 per litre as a result of such competition.

"What we are calling is to allow all the companies Petronas, Shell or Exxomobile and so on to actually compete among each other to sell their petrol to Malaysian user," said Pua.

"One of the key anomalies in Malaysia is that you cannot sell at a price higher than RM1.90 but at the same time the government also prevent the companies from selling at a price below RM1.90 even if the companies want to sell at a cheaper price to their consumers," he said.

"This is ridiculous... you can control the price from going up because of public interest but you should not control the companies from competing... maybe there are more efficient and they might make more money," he added.

petrol price hike panic 010705 shell station The DAP national publicity secretary said introducing a ceiling price in order to curb inflation, was understandable, but to control retailers from offering lower prices was something incomprehensible.

Lim, also commenting on the matter said "there is no joy" in the 10 sen fuel price cut, as consumer goods prices were still higher than it was before the fuel price hike in June.

"The fact that the prime minister himself was making the announcement showed that he is trying to gain some political mileage from it," he said.

"Bring down all the other prices, let that be the last act by the prime minister," said Lim and added that this act would be better remembered by the people when premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi steps down March next year.

Minister responds

Meanwhile, when met at the Parliament lobby, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Shahrir Abdul Samad said the fuel prices are part of the controlled priced items therefore, the retail price and the profit margin of retailers are also determined by the government.

"It is compulsory for them (petrol retailers) to sell at the prices that are determined by the government as petrol is a controlled item and the government has set RM1.90 as the price of petrol," said Shahrir to reporters.

He added that the prices will be monitored according to the world market prices and reviewed every two weeks.