It takes more than just candidates to become a multi-racial party
Salleh Said Keruak
The current discussion in the social media is about DAP not being able to attract enough Malay support. The discussion is centred on DAP fielding more Malay candidates in the next general election, especially in those seats that PAS currently ‘owns’. Of course, they mean the seats that PAS owns in the urban or ‘mixed’ areas and not seats in the Malay heartland, where the voters are 90% or more Malay and therefore where DAP would not stand a chance of winning.
The late MGG Pillai used to say that Umno is a Malay party. PAS is also a Malay party. PKR, however, is a Malay-based multi-racial party. The reason Pillai said that PKR is a Malay-based multi-racial party is because the bulk of its membership and support base is Malay even though its leaders and the candidates in the election are not.
DAP also claims it is a multi-racial party. But then it is a Chinese-based multi-racial party and whether it can legitimately claim to be a true Malaysian party (meaning not Chinese-based) is a matter that is still open for discussion because of the lack of a strong presence of Malays in the party.
Umno can field Christian candidates in Sabah or PAS field Hindu candidates in Kedah but that does not take away the fact that Umno and PAS are still Malay parties. In that same context just because DAP fields a few Malay candidates in the next general election that, too, does not take away the fact that DAP is a Chinese party.
