GEORGE TOWN: Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng expressed his sadness over the actions of some parties who are playing the race card to garner support of the Malays in Penang.

Condemning their actions, including the demonstration held today by several Malay and Muslim-based NGOs, Lim said using racial issues was wrong and undemocratic.

"I believe Penangites will not stand for such actions and will not believe in the allegations. It has never been the Pakatan Rakyat government's policy to carry out enforcement against one race as alleged or discriminate against any group, organisation or race.

"Even yesterday, a Chinese trader lodged a report that his stall had been demolished by the authorities. We have statistics to show that their allegations are not true as there are in fact more non-Malays who have faced enforcement by this state government," he said at a press conference before the inaugural meeting of Penang Council of Foreign Consuls at his office earlier today.

"We want to reject the culture of dwarfing the various races as practiced by the Barisan Nasional. This government wants to empower every race be they Malays, Indians or Chinese.

"Our system is a fantastic social experiment to empower every race to stand on their own two feet and achieve success based on their own abilities.

"The BN always claims that the Malays would only do well with Umno but we have also shown that they can prosper without Umno," he added.

Lim said following the demonstration which would have attracted those who were unaware of the actual situation, the state government would go to the ground to explain the facts.

"Under the BN for 50 years, hardcore poverty existed in Penang but we managed to raise those within the hardcore-poverty bracket in just two years. More than 90% of those in the low-income bracket are from a particular race and religions and we took care of their needs.

"In a short span of time, we have also managed to curb corruption and abuse of power. This has been proven by our competency, accountability and transparency policy for a clean government, which has even received recognition from Transparency International.

"We will continue with our agenda to empower the people and to enrich them with an equitable share of the state's wealth," he said.