SHAH ALAM, 21 Dec: It is not impossible for more religious followers such as Ustadz, to join DAP someday because the party is a multi-racial party like PKR and Socialist Party of Malaysi (PSM).
Participation of religious followers in DAP can no longer be considered a strange thing as now, DAP is seen as a social democratic party that is championing good governance just like PRK and PSM.
Lecturer Dr Maszlee Malik, from the Faculty of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences, said this to TV Selangor.
“As a multi-racial party, they should have the face of diversity. What I mean is not just Islamic religious followers. Even now, there are Christian and Buddhist activists. Why are there no Ustadz or Islamic activists in it?
“DAP itself, as far as I know, has a group of Ustadz have already joined DAP such as Abdul Hakim, Mustakim with Fakri,” said Dr Maszlee.
“PKR and PSM are similar as DAP in upholding justice, good governance. There are also groups like Dr Manuaty, Dr Badrol Amin as well as others,” Dr Maszlee said.
Before 1998, the Malay community is seen as ‘fearing’ to approach DAP because for over 50 years, the mainstream media had managed to play their role in giving the impression that DAP is a party for the Chinese.
However the wall of old fashioned thinking of the Malay community towards DAP is beginning to crumble, bit by bit, after the onset of the 1998 Reformation movement.
The Malay community’s belief towards DAP has been seen to increase when the party cooperated after the opposition managed to deny BN a two-thirds majority in parliament.
Moreover, PAS, who also became victims of the mainstream media that labelled them as Islamic extremists, is prepared to collaborate with DAP and PKR which is something that was deemed impossible before 1998.