Penang DAP has proposed conducting courses for PAS leaders and members to educate them on Chinese family names, aiming to dispel misconceptions and prevent offensive statements. The initiative, spearheaded by Penang DAP organising secretary Phee Boon Chee, highlights ongoing racial misunderstandings perpetuated by PAS leaders and their repeated mischaracterisation of Chinese figures in Malaysian society.
Phee announced that DAP is actively seeking funding and support from cultural experts to conduct these courses, citing the need to rectify PAS’s continuous misstatements about non-Malay communities. He pointed out that if PAS leaders truly understood Malaysia’s multicultural society, they would not repeatedly make statements that insult or misrepresent Chinese heritage.
PAS’s Indignant Response
Unsurprisingly, PAS has reacted defensively to the proposal. PAS information chief Ahmad Fadhli Shaari dismissed the idea, arguing that it implies PAS is ignorant of the customs and culture of Malaysia’s non-Malay communities.
However, the reality of PAS’s past remarks tells a different story. One glaring example cited by Phee was Perak PAS chief Razman Zakaria’s baseless claim that Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh was linked to the prominent Yeoh family behind YTL Corporation.
Another example is Kepala Batas MP Dr Siti Mastura Muhammad’s assertion that DAP leaders Tan Sri Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng were associated with the late Communist Party of Malaya leader Chin Peng and Singapore's former PM Lee Kuan Yew, allegations that were widely debunked.
Ignorance or Political Opportunism?
The recurring missteps by PAS leaders raise a pressing question: is their ignorance genuine, or is it a deliberate political strategy to stir ethnic sentiments? These narratives could serve to discredit DAP and reinforce PAS’s hardline appeal among its Malay-Muslim voter base. This approach, however, does little to foster national unity and only deepens racial divisions.
DAP’s proposed courses may seem like an olive branch, but whether PAS leaders will engage in meaningful learning remains doubtful. Their outright rejection of such education is merely a face-saving move, while accepting it would be seen as an admission of ignorance. PAS needs to reprimand its leaders for spreading misinformation to uphold the party’s integrity and dignity, rather than using false narratives as a political tool to gain support.
If PAS truly wishes to champion the rights of all Malaysians, it must move beyond racial stereotyping, respect Malaysia’s diverse cultural landscape, and embrace a more inclusive understanding of the nation’s communities.
By: Kpost
Kpost is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.