KUALA LUMPUR, May 10 — DAP national chairman Lim Guan Eng slammed PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang for accusing DAP of destroying Islam and the Malays.
Lim said in a statement that Abdul Hadi’s claims were highly irresponsible and dangerous.
“Firstly, Abdul Hadi cannot show any proof or evidence of his claims. More importantly, no force on earth can destroy Islam as one of the great religions in history.
“Islam is here to stay and will be the largest religion in the world in the next 30 years.
“No one, much less Abdul Hadi himself, will believe that DAP wants to destroy Islam. Such outrageous lies are a clear and present danger to racial and religious harmony in the country,” he said.
The Bagan MP also stressed that PAS and Perikatan Nasional (PN) are unfit for office, whether in the Kuala Kubu Baru state seat or Putrajaya, as they persist in perpetuating extremist tropes of racist and religious profiling to win votes at the expense of national unity instead of focusing on the economy.
“In his maiden campaign appearance at the Kuala Kubu Baru by-election last night, Abdul Hadi spoke only of threats to Islam and Malays by forces he implicitly referred to non-Malays and non-Muslims.
“Hadi is lying when he cautioned Umno members and supporters in Selangor not to repeat the mistake of losing political power in Singapore, because Umno had never won power in Singapore.
“Further, DAP had no official relations and communications with Singapore’s People’s Action Party (PAP) after Separation in 1965, as a result of the PAP’s policy of maintaining good relations with the Alliance/Barisan Nasional-led Malaysian government,” he explained.
Lim also pointed out that DAP only had official communications with the Singapore government when Pakatan Rakyat won power in five states following the political tsunami of 2008 general elections.
“PAS state governments in Kelantan also welcomed the visit of Singapore founder Lee Kuan Yew. PAS appears to have good relations with Singapore as compared to DAP state governments.
“On October 10 last year, PAS deputy president Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man even welcomed a high-powered Singapore delegation comprising its National Development Minister Desmond Lee and Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan.
“Tuan Ibrahim spoke of cooperation and investments from Singapore into the four PAS states of Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan and Terengganu,” he said.
Lim said that the irony now is that Abdul Hadi was attacking DAP through Singapore and questioned why no action was taken against Tuan Ibrahim for consorting with high-ranking officials of Singapore if the latter was such a danger to Islam and Malays.
“Abdul Hadi is again wrong for saying that DAP intends to eradicate race. DAP has never talked of eradicating Chinese, Malays, or Indians.
“DAP wants to unite Malaysians regardless of race and religion on a common platform of economic prosperity for all, socio-economic justice, rule of law and basic human rights, equal opportunity and upholding the Federal Constitution.
“This contrasts with Abdul Hadi’s focus on arbitrarily targeting and discriminating against minority groups and even other Muslims and Malays who disagree with Abdul Hadi, on the pretext of protecting Islam and Malays,” he said.
