​TELUK INTAN, May 26 — PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang today praised Teluk Intan hopeful, Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud, for making DAP her political party of choice despite being a Malay.

Abdul Hadi also hit back at detractors who have criticised the Islamist party for choosing to partner DAP, saying PAS has more in common with the mostly Chinese party than with Malay race-based party, Umno.

“We feel that Dyana is brave to be a candidate, more so a DAP candidate,” the Marang MP said at a high tea event here.

“I can’t even see myself as a DAP candidate,” he added.

The seasoned opposition politician noted that Dyana likely has her own role to play in DAP.

Dyana’s detractors have labelled her a “traitor to her race” and an ingrate for joining DAP, especially when her mother herself is an Umno member.

Umno supreme council member Datuk Razali Ibrahim also dubbed Dyana ungrateful for questioning her alma mater, Universiti Teknologi Mara’s (UiTM) Bumiputera policy.

Abdul Hadi reminded PAS supporters in Taman Cicely here today that DAP has helped PAS when the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition allegedly tried to oust the Islamist party from ruling Kelantan during the 1977 Kelantan Emergency.

Now, he said, is the time for PAS to return the favour towards DAP.

“Although there are so many things different between us, about what is halal (permissible) and haram (forbidden), alcohol and pork, hudud,” he said, the last a reference to the controversial Islamic penal law that saw the two parties at loggerheads for decades.

However, he explained that the parties agree with each other in eradicating poverty, cruelty, and corruption, among others.

“In things we don’t agree on, Umno has shown towards its allies in BN that it would not talk things out.

“But with DAP, even when we are at each other’s throats, we can still discuss it, we can debate it,” added Abdul Hadi.

In campaigning for the Teluk Intan by-election, PAS has helped out DAP by canvassing the areas with majority Malay voters.

The tea party at Taman Cicely today was one such effort, which also saw the attendance of PAS Youth chief Suhaizan Kaiat, Perak PAS commissioner Razman Zakaria, Sepang MP Mohamed Hanipa Maidin, and former Selangor commissioner Dr Abd Rani Osman.

DAP’s Dyana will face Gerakan president Datuk Mah Siew Keong in a straight fight for Teluk Intan.

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