KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 ― Malaysians must unite against those pushing racism and an extremist religious agenda, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said today.

In his Deepavali message, Lim said Malaysia continues to be distracted by those in government who play up racial and religious sentiments, as well as discriminate and interfere in the lifestyle of non-Muslims and non-Malays.

"We must not despair but unite as one against those in government pursuing such a racist and extremist religious agenda.

"Truth, justice and freedom must not be mere words but core principles that must be upheld to ensure prosperity for all.

"Let us dedicate ourselves to the fundamental premise of the Federal Constitution that Malaysia belongs to both Muslims and non-Muslims, Malays and non-Malays from peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak,” he said.

He claimed there are unfair funds under the proposed Budget 2022 where non-Muslims and non-Malays were allocated a mere 0.1 per cent of the RM332 billion allocated despite comprising some 30 per cent of the country’s population.

"This unfair allocation is not helped by the scandalous exposure of a large portion of the RM100 million Mitra funds that benefited politically connected individuals from political parties at the expense of the Indian community at large,” he said.

Lim was referring to the recent arrest of several company directors over the past few days on suspicion of being involved in the misappropriation of Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit funds from 2019 to 2021.