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Malaysia GE2022: DAP’s Malay candidates aim to dispel pro-Chinese image
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Former DAP minister Yeo Bee Yin, Johor DAP political education director Alan Tee Boon Tsong and DAP Ayer Hitam candidate Sheikh Omar Ali at a Chinese eatery in Yong Peng, Johor.
ST PHOTO: ZAIHAN MOHAMED YUSOF
KUALA LUMPUR - The Democratic Action Party (DAP) has the largest number of lawmakers in Parliament coming into Saturday’s general election, but scepticism from the Malay Muslim majority – its Achilles heel – has effectively capped its influence on Malaysian politics.
While DAP presents itself as a multiracial party, decades of ethnocentric rhetoric from rival parties claiming that it seeks to undermine privileges accorded to the Bumiputera (a term used to describe Malays and native minorities) and Islamic interests have meant that its membership and voter support remain largely Chinese.
