TELUK INTAN, May 30 — Should Teluk Intan vote for her tomorrow, it would signify racial barriers have been conquered and not because the DAP held an incumbency advantage, the party’s candidate Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud declared today in the Chinese-majority constituency.

The Teluk Intan hopeful also expressed confidence that the electorate would vote not based on skin colour, but on the candidates’ philosophy.

“We’re here to make history,” the 26-year-old  told a press conference at the DAP operations centre here.

Dyana Sofya also said the past two weeks of campaigning have helped mature her beyond her 26 years.

“Teluk Intan voters reject race politics,” said the DAP candidate for the Teluk Intan by-election.

DAP’s Teluk Intan campaign director Tony Pua previously said the young Malay woman was fielded in the federal constituency, where the Chinese are the largest group of voters at 42 per cent, to achieve the party’s dream of a “Malaysian Malaysia”.

While Dyana Sofya has been campaigning against race politics and the rising cost of living, her political opponent Datuk Mah Siew Keong, Gerakan president, has premised his campaign on bringing development to the semi-urban constituency in Perak.

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said at the same press conference that the Teluk Intan by-election was a significant one in that it offers Malaysians the opportunity to prove they can look beyond a candidate’s ethnic background.

“We hope voters can show that they’re different from the others, (that) they don’t support race politics,” said Lim.

“We see Dyana as a true Malaysian child,” added the senior DAP leader.

Dyana Sofya also launched her bi-lingual book titled “An Earthly Beginning”, and in Malay, “Di Sini Bermula”, at the press conference.

The book is a compilation of her articles in The Malay Mail Online and other news portals, as well as some press statements she wrote as political secretary to DAP adviser and Gelang Patah MP, Lim Kit Siang.