TELUK INTAN, May 20 ― Gerakan refused today to say outright if it agreed that affirmative action should be based on race, as practised by the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition which the multi-racial party is part of.

Former Gerakan acting president Datuk Chang Ko Youn was asked if he agreed with DAP's Teluk Intan candidate Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud that race-based affirmative action should be replaced with policies focused on  helping the needy across all ethnicities.

“Affirmative action should be based on needs and merit,” Chang told a press conference at Gerakan's office here today, without saying specifically if race-based policies should be eradicated.

Dyana Sofya told The Malay Mail Online in a recent interview that race-based affirmative action policies should be replaced with needs-based programmes, stressing that Malays would still benefit as they comprised the majority of low-income earners.

Malay rights groups such as Perkasa have fiercely opposed any attempt by the government to roll back race-based policies in favour of promoting meritocracy and competition, even as Malaysia aims to be a developed nation in six years’ time.

Last year, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced billions in allocation for the Bumiputera community.

Today, Chang accused the DAP of engaging in race politics by playing up Dyana Sofya’s ethnicity to get the Malay vote.

“They say they don’t care about race, so why’d you put her there?” Chang questioned.

He also said that Gerakan’s Teluk Intan campaign would not use pictures of Dyana Sofya posing with controversial Perkasa chief Datuk Ibrahim Ali, which were circulated in an apparent effort to smear her.

“For us, we’ll have a clean fight,” he said.

Dyana will face Gerakan president Datuk Mah Siew Keong in a straight fight in the Teluk Intan by-election scheduled on May 31.

Mah won the Teluk Intan federal seat in 1999 and 2004, but lost to DAP’s M. Manogaran in 2008 with a 1,470-vote majority.

DAP’s Seah Leong Peng had defeated Mah in 2013 with a 7,313-vote majority before succumbing to advanced bladder cancer on May 1 this year.

The voter base in Teluk Intan, Perak, is 42 per cent Chinese, 38 per cent Malay and 19 per cent Indian, making a total of 60,349 registered voters.