KUALA LUMPUR, May 18 — DAP has always used Malays to dupe voters into thinking it is a multi-racial party and its candidate for the Teluk Intan by-election, Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud, is part of DAP’s latest trick, Umno-backed daily Utusan Malaysia claimed today.

In its weekend edition Mingguan Malaysia, Utusan claimed that just like other Malays who had previously joined DAP, Dyana too will leave the party one day with regret.

“DAP’s strategy has always been the same, using Malays to blur the eyes of the people as if it is a multi-racial party. The reality is, DAP fights only for the total agenda of one race.

“Tens of Malay activists and leaders have left DAP because they realised the party’s trick which actually is detrimental to religion and race,” said a column by Awang Selamat, the collective pseudonym used by Utusan’s editors.

Awang listed down names such as Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim, Ahmad Ton, A. Rahman Manap, and Mohamed Razali as examples of Malays who have joined the party but left after allegedly finding out unsavoury facts about DAP.

“Just like other Malay DAP ex-members, Awang believes one day Dyana Sofea [sic] will leave the party after being hit by regret,” the column said.

“Let her be exalted by DAP at this moment, before she falls down to the mud which by then will have no value.”

In a bid to shed its image as a predominantly Chinese party, DAP has picked a young Malay woman, Dyana, as its candidate for the by-election in Teluk Intan, a Chinese-majority constituency.

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng announced the candidacy of 26-year-old Dyana, who is also political secretary to party veteran Lim Kit Siang, at the DAP operation centre for the parliamentary by-election here yesterday.

The Teluk Intan by-election, which is scheduled on May 31, was triggered after DAP MP Seah Leong Peng recently died from cancer.

In the May 5 general election last year, Seah defeated BN’s Mah with a 7,313-vote majority.

The voter base in Teluk Intan is 42 per cent Chinese and 38 per cent Malay and 19 per cent Indian.