Wednesday, July 30, 2014

DAP: Zuhdi must apologise for 'racist' remarks


DAP today demanded that PAS central committee member Mohd Zuhdi Marzuki apologise for "racist and extremist" remarks made in leaked chat messages.

DAP's national publicity secretary Tony Pua (right) said while it was the prerogative of the Islamic party to analyse if it should or should not remain in the opposition bloc, it was the second part of Zuhdi’s "analysis" that has irked many Malaysians.

"Where Zuhdi wants to remain in Pakatan or not is not disputed. That is his right as a PAS member (to make that consideration)," Pua said in a statement.

Pua was referring to Zuhdi's remarks about "swatting away" complaints by DAP and non-Muslims if PAS teams up with Umno.

In his messages, which was part of a conversation in a PAS central committee mobile messaging service, Whatsapp, chat group, also dismissed the 'Allah' issue and appeared to endorse church raids.

Zuhdi has offered nothing more than a simple explanation that he was "representing other people's opinions" when he wrote the second part of the message.

"His analysis clearly shows that he has racist and extremist thoughts where the rights of Malaysians who are non-Malay and non-Muslim can be trampled on," Pua said.

'Action against narrow-minded leaders'

In his sternly worded press statement, Pua, who also heads Selangor's DAP division, asked Dr Mohd Zuhdi to leave Pakatan.

"If his racist and extremist ways are not regretted, then we do not wish to see Dr Mohd Zuhdi remain in Pakatan, even if he has no intentions to exit.

"At the same time,we hope that PAS take action against other narrow-minded leaders like him so that the good name of PAS and its slogan 'PAS for all' is not marred," the MP for Petaling Jaya Utara said.

Pua noted that even in Zuhdi's follow-up Facebook comments acknowledging the exposed Whatsapp messages, Mohd Zuhdi did not make amends for his bigoted remarks.

"Therefore, his name is still not cleared of very negative perceptions from many quarters," Pua added.

In the leaked message, Mohd Zuhdi, a lecturer, had a discussion with other PAS central commitee leaders. They outlined a strategy of even co-operating with rival Umno to keep Selangor MB Abdul Khalid Ibrahim (left) in power.

This is to counter a PKR recent bid to replace him with the party's president Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

The part that Pua found offensive was when the discussion talked about a plan to restore the dominance of the Malays in the country's political landscape so that they could negate "DAP and non-Muslims".

This appeared to directly contradict Pakatan fight for a multi-racial, multi-religious Malaysia.

Zuhdi is also the operations director of the PAS research centre (PPP).

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