KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 9 — DAP’s secretary-general Anthony Loke has warned political rivals tonight against slander and playing the racial card during their general election campaigning.
He added that voters have had enough of such accusations and prefer to know what the parties are offering to tackle more relevant issues such as transport issues, housing affordability, rising costs of living, and racial harmony.
"If their main campaign mode is to attack DAP with the racial card, it shows that they don’t have good policies to offer the voters.
"And they have resorted to using such rhetorics to do the easiest, which is attacking us,” said Loke in an interview with Astro Awani.
He also refuted PAS's earlier claim that DAP is a communist party, calling it illogical.
"If we really are communists, how are we allowed to contest general elections?
"And PAS has worked with us before, how could they not know our background?” said Loke.
PAS’s president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang had been marked for making racial and religious remarks recently for calling DAP a communist party and claiming non-Muslims are the source of corruption in Malaysia.
When asked how DAP deals with the label of being a "Chinese party”, he said the party has fielded more Malay candidates this round to prove it is a multi-ethnic party.
"We have fielded nine Malay candidates this time, but I’m aware we will still be called [Chinese].
"I have a lot of sympathy for our Malay candidates because they are suffering a lot of pressures, mocking, and personal attacks, but I’m proud of their bravery and steadfastness,” said Loke.
He also praised their Bentong candidate Young Syefura Othman for her thorough work in assisting the locals during flooding, saying "she arrived as the earliest, and left as the latest”.
The DAP leader then added that he believes voters will judge them based on their performance, and his goal is to break racial politics in this election by fielding candidates by their performance instead of racial profiling.
Loke is currently defending his seat in Seremban, which he won with an overwhelming 30,694 majority against PAS and BN in 2018.
