KUALA LUMPUR, March 5 — Malay leaders are being used by the DAP as tools to give the false perception that the Pakatan Harapan coalition is a Malay-led coalition, Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak said today.

In a blog posting, the Minister of Communications and Multimedia said that the truth is that DAP and Lim Kit Siang are in control of the coalition and dictates what happens.

"Many now realise that both Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim are mere props and, like most Malays in DAP, are being used as mascots to attract Malay voters when, in fact, they both have no say in Pakatan since neither are Members of Parliament,” he said.

Salleh said that the DAP needed to do this because it knows that it cannot court Malay voters on its own.

"The Umno-led Barisan Nasional does not operate this way and would never resort to trickery to deceive the voters because we work transparently and with mutual respect for one another within the coalition.

"We also do not make U-turns just to suit the political needs of certain individuals at the expense of the party or the coalition like what the opposition leaders do.”

Yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak reportedly said that DAP’s Lim would most likely become deputy prime minister should BN lose the next general election.

Najib was quoted saying that this had already been agreed on between Lim and Dr Mahathir, and that this "ali baba” arrangement, if successful, would make the Gelang Patah MP incredibly powerful as he would be able to choose who would be prime minister.