On the ground: Loke (right) greeting voters during a ceramah in Muar.
MUAR: There is no need for DAP to abandon its secular nation agenda nor its “Malaysian Malaysia” slogan as suggested by an Umno leader, says Anthony Loke.
The DAP secretary-general said that an understanding had already been reached among parties in the unity government pact before they decided to work together after the 15th General Election (GE15) last November.
“DAP has never asked any party to amend its constitution. Each party has its own principles and ideology, but what is important is that when we formed the unity government, we agreed to work together in maintaining several key parameters.
“The most important parameter is to uphold and defend the Federal Constitution and the provisions under it.
“We support the principles under the Constitution, including the status of Islam as the federal religion, Bahasa Melayu as the national language, Article 153 and the status of Malay Rulers,” he told reporters here on Friday night.
Loke added that Barisan Nasional chairman and Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had also accepted DAP’s stance before the latter decided to bring Barisan into the unity government pact.
The pact was established after GE15 when no coalition had enough parliamentary seats to form the federal government, and consists of Pakatan Harapan and Barisan as well as Sarawak and Sabah parties which had been rivals during the polls.
DAP is part of Pakatan, while Barisan is led by Umno.
“There is no need to bring up polemics that will only affect the confidence of the people,” said Loke, referring to a statement by Johor Umno leader, Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed, who urged DAP to drop its “Malaysian Malaysia” slogan in order to gain more support from Malays.
“Because those two agendas continue to traumatise Malays and make them unable to accept DAP. The question is, does DAP dare to make such a big sacrifice for the sake of its political survival?” Nur Jazlan posted on Facebook.
Loke refuted this view, arguing that voters are more interested in evaluating the track record and work of their representatives and not their party ideology.
“Even in my own constituencies, both parliament and state seats, I still won with a pretty high majority despite the areas having a high percentage of Malay voters.“This shows that voters look at the way we work, our approach and services, not our party ideology,” he said.
Loke also said Nur Jazlan’s views have not affected Pakatan’s campaign in the Pulai and Simpang Jeram by-elections.
“It has not affected the by-elections as DAP is not contesting. The candidates are both from Amanah,” he said.
The main challenge in the by-elections, Loke said, was to convince outstation voters to return.
“We do not know the exact percentage of outstation voters (in the two seats), but we know that the numbers are big.
“We know that in Johor, there are many working in other places such as Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
“Our challenge is to identify the outstation voters and to call them, convincing them to return home to vote,” he said.
