KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 23 — DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng has said that Malaysians who are moderate and focused on improving the nation’s economy must “stick together” against the pursuit of power by “racists and extremists”.

In a statement today, Lim said that Perikatan Nasional had taken such a racist and extremist stance, using PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang’s recent comments on Muslim and non-Muslim voter turnout as an example.

“Non-Muslims are not enemies of Islam. Non-Muslims are opposed to PAS for continuing to threaten to diminish and erode the fundamental rights enshrined in the Federal Constitution and interfere in the lifestyle of non-Muslims.

“PAS is a political party whilst Islam is a universal religion,” he said.

Lim added that Hadi was playing “a dangerous game” by equating non-Muslims as the enemies of Islam.

“For Hadi to equate non-Muslims opposed to PAS as also opposed to Islam is irrational, divisive and a clear and present danger to a harmonious society,” he said.

Lim was referring to Hadi’s statement recently where the latter claimed non-Muslim voter turn-out in the 15th general election was at 98 per cent, while Muslim voter turnout was at 60 per cent.

Hadi went on to equate Muslims who did not vote as retreating away from “the enemies of Islam”, which he said was a grave sin in Islam.

Lim also said that Hadi was “simply lying” and cited statements from a data scientist, Thevesh Theva, who had said on Twitter that the Election Commission does not publish data on voter turnout by race.

Thevesh had also pointed out that there was no seat in Malaysia that had a voter turnout of more than 85.5 per cent, and that Marang — which is where Hadi is MP — had a voter turnout of 82.8 per cent.