KUALA LUMPUR, June 15 — DAP must give its all to make the "unity government” work to safeguard its interests as a multicultural party, its secretary-general Anthony Loke said today in an radio interview.

Loke said that the current coalition government — comprising Pakatan Harapan (PH), Barisan Nasional, Gabungan Parti Sarawak, and Gabungan Bersatu Sabah — under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim upholds the multicultural and multireligious aspect of Malaysia.

"If this government fails, what is the option? The option is that you have a coalition that does not believe in multiculturalism.

"That just talks about one single race and religion in this country

"So that is not an option for us, as far as DAP is concerned, as far as I am concerned,” he said during an interview on radio station BFM’s The Breakfast Grille programme.

Loke, who is also transport minister, said that this was the reason that DAP takes a step back on certain contentious issues and allows Anwar to manage a government that contains 19 parties, which are also split into several coalitions.

He added that "like it or not”, Anwar is currently the best leader to helm such a diverse government.

"We are a senior and a very close partner to the prime minister, so if we do not give him that room and that understanding to support him, he will face a lot of difficulties.

"Of course there are people who say that are we being dumb right now, or are we so afraid of speaking up,” he said, referring to the DAP as coalition partner to Anwar who is PKR president and chairman of PH.

"It’s not an issue of speaking up, speaking up is easy, but how to manage a very delicate situation, that is the challenge,” he said.

Loke was asked about his views on controversial issues such as certain Malay leaders pronouncing that only Malays should be prime minister of the country, and about how DAP was given only four ministerial positions despite winning 40 seats in the 15th general election last November.

The Opposition Perikatan Nasional won the second highest number of seats in GE15, with 74 seats — behind PH’s 81 seats.