By Lim Kit Siang, MP for Gelang Patah

This is because the greatest enemy to Prime Minister, Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia Policy to build a nation where everyone regards himself or herself as Malaysian first and race, religion, region and socio-economic status second are cancer organisations like Isma which preaches the politics of hate, intolerance, lies and racism.

For instance, Isma attacked the defeat of the DAP candidate Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud in the Teluk Intan by-election as “the failure of the Chinese-dominated party to use a Malay as a mask to hide its chauvinism”, disseminating the preposterous lie that the “real struggle of DAP is to abolish the special rights of the Malays and bumiputera, which ruins harmony in the nation”.

Isma wants the DAP “like cancer” to be “cast out from the local political landscape”.

This is an example of the Dyanaphobia which have afflicted Isma and such like organisations which thrive on the politics of hate, intolerance, lies and racism because of the candidature of Dyana Sofya in the Teluk Intan by-election.

They are panicking because they find their message of hatred, intolerance, lies and racism are facing a diminishing market and more and more Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region want to see a new Malaysia uniting all Malaysians and transcending the politics of race, hatred and lies.

It is fortunate that it is not the extremist and hate organisations like Isma, but the voters of Malaysia, who will decide whether the DAP is banished from the political landscape.

In fact, the 48-year history of the DAP is testimony that the DAP is increasingly relevant to the future of Malaysia and that it is the extremist organisations like Isma which are facing extinction because they depend on the message of hatred, intolerance, lies and racism for survival.

Dyana Sofya is not the first Malay candidate to be nominated by the DAP.

Even before the first general elections contested by the DAP in the 1969 general elections, the DAP had fielded a Malay candidate Daing Ibrahim Othman in the Tampoi by-election in 1967.

In the 1969 general election DAP fielded nine Malay candidates and two won on its ticket, namely Ibrahim Singgeh who was elected as the Perak State Assemblyman for Tapah Road and Hassan Ahmad who became the Negri Sembilan State Assemblyman for Si Rusa.

Daing Ibrahim Othman was the DAP parliamentary candidate for Johore Bahru Barat and State Assembly candidate for Tampoi but lost respectively to the then Alliance candidates, Mohamed bin Rahmat and Ellas bin Udin.

Subsequently in the 1974 GE Mohd Salleh Nakhoda Itam and Daing Ibrahim Othman won the Guntong and Pasir Puteh state seats in Perak respectively.

In the 1978 GE, DAP fielded a record number of Malay candidates, nine at the parliamentary level and 36 at state level. However only Mohd Salleh Nakhoda Itam won the Guntong state seat.

In the 1982 and 86 GE, Fadzlan Yahza was elected DAP State Assemblyman for Pasir Bedamar.

In the 1990 GE, DAP’s Ahmad Nor became the first Malay candidate for the party to win a parliamentary seat, winning the Bayan Baru parliamentary seat in Penang while Mohd Asri Othman was elected DAP State Assemblyman for Dermawan in Perak.

In GE13, DAP Malay candidates achieved the best results yet. Zairil Khir Johari won the Bukit Bendera parliamentary seat in Penang, while Mohd Ariff Sabri and Tengku Zulpuri won the Raub parliamentary seat and Mentakab state in Pahang respectively. Ariffin Omar is the senator for DAP representing Penang in the Dewan Negara (Senate).

The fear of Isma and such-like organisations is not that the DAP is anti-Malay but that we will find increasing acceptance among the Malay electorate because DAP is never anti-Malay, anti-Islam, anti-Malay Rulers – the lies they keep disseminating to drive the Malays away from the DAP.

But facts and truth will triumph eventually against lies and falsehoods.

As the DAP has demonstrated right from our formation in 1966, the DAP does not want a Chinese Malaysia, Indian Malaysia, Malay Malaysia, Kadazan Malaysia or Iban Malaysia but a Malaysia for all Malaysians.

Malaysia will always be a plural society. We will always be proud to be Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans and Ibans, but let us be prouder as Malaysians.

This in a nutshell is what the Malaysian Dream is all about, and what extremist organisations like Isma are trying to frustrate, like King Canute trying to stop the coming of the tide.