DAP says no instant solution to low Malay membership

DAP National Publicity Secretary, Tony Pua, speaks at DAP’s Impian Malaysia launch at Sunway Pyramid in Petaling Jaya, January 17, 2016. — Picture by Yusof Mat IsaPETALING JAYA, Jan 17 — DAP is adding Malay members at a “healthy” pace, Tony Pua said today after an Umno minister told the party that it needed to do more to convince the public that it was not a Chinese party.

The DAP national publicity secretary explained, however, that the party’s outreach efforts to the Malay community could not be expected to yield instant results.

“We are working hard to attract the Malays and there is a healthy development. Of course, we could not gain 50 per cent Malay members overnight,” Pua told reporters at DAP’s Impian Malaysia launch here in Sunway Pyramid shopping complex.

“We are a Malaysian party and we do not place importance on race, unlike Umno.”

Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak yesterday said DAP needed to do more than simply fielding Malay candidates in order to shed its anti-Malay image.

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, who was also present, conceded that the party’s membership was majority Chinese, but insisted that it is working hard at signing up members of other races.

“We do not deny that. But we are getting more Malay members and that is our process in fighting the poison instilled by Barisan Nasional and Umno that we are anti-Malay,” the Penang chief minister said.

“We are not anti-Malay. We are anti-corruption,” Lim added.

A recent survey by the Institut Darul Ehsan think tank found that DAP was viewed by the Malay community as a Chinese party that was only concerned with the latter group’s interests.

- TMI