KUALA LUMPUR, 12 April — DAP MP Hannah Yeoh has slammed her party’s central committee member Ronnie Liu for the latter’s racial remarks that she said painted DAP in a bad light.

The Segambut MP said that Liu’s views that DAP should not position itself as “non-Chinese”, contradicted with his concurrent statement that it is a party for all Malaysians.

“For me, I have stopped listening to Ronnie a long time ago. But this time I cannot stay silent because he has done a great disservice to many of us DAP leaders out there who are working hard to fight off prejudices and stigmas against the DAP.

“Ronnie Liu does not represent me. The DAP that Ronnie wants is not the DAP I joined,” she said.

Yeoh lamented that Liu had also caused inconvenience for government leaders when Pakatan Harapan was still in power, by having a “constant countdown” on Facebook for when former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad would hand over power to PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

“Everyone including Tun M, Anwar, Ronnie (and myself included) must shoulder some blame in the collapse of the PH government.

“Responsible leadership requires us to examine ourselves. For Ronnie, Tun M can do no right. For Ronnie, Anwar can do no wrong,” she said.

Earlier today, Malaysiakini reported that DAP is facing an internal fight ahead of its national congress and the central executive committee election in June.

This included Sungai Pelek assemblyman Liu, who reportedly said the party should not belittle or degrade itself just to gain Malay support.

“DAP is a multi-racial party. The party need not dilute its Chineseness just because of the criticism from our political enemies.

“We have to safeguard the culture of the party, as well as the party’s constitutional spirit, pluralistic and democratic political struggle,” Liu was quoted saying in a speech during the launch of DAP veteran Liew Ah Kim’s book in Klang yesterday.

“DAP is for all Malaysians. We need to cooperate with other Malay parties, but we shouldn’t degrade or portray ourselves as a non-Chinese party.

“You would not get Malay support by these approaches,” he was quoted adding.

DAP, formerly a spin-off of Singapore’s ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) was formed in October 1965 by mostly former Malaysian PAP members, when Singapore left Malaysia to become a sovereign nation.

The PAP had campaigned against Bumiputera privileges afforded to the latter in the Malaysian general election, and the DAP continued this trend in the 1960s.

This, coupled with the fact that DAP has historically had a majority of Chinese leaders has left the party with a reputation of being pro-Chinese, and sometimes, anti-Malay.

The party has, however, made concerted efforts in recent years to put on a more multi-ethnic face and has bolstered its ranks with more Malay leaders and members as well as younger moderates, especially since the 13th general election.

This, seemingly has rattled those in the party who seek to use DAP as a platform for Chinese language, education and business interests.