No need to bring up issues that will affect people’s confidence, says Loke

MUAR: There is no need to bring up issues that will only affect the confidence of the people, says Anthony Loke in response to a statement from an Umno leader.

The DAP secretary-general said that the focus should be on working hard to gain the support of voters in the Pulai and Simpang Jeram by-elections.

“There is no need to bring up such issues. No need to come out with statements that will affect the people’s trust. We should now be focusing on getting the support of voters,” said Loke.

He added that DAP has never asked any party to amend its constitution.

“Each party has its own principles and ideology but what is important is that when we form the unity government, we agree to work together in maintaining several key parameters,” said Loke.

He then said that the most important parameter is to uphold and defend the Federal Constitution and the provisions under it.

“We support the principles under the constitution, including the status of Islam as the Federal religion, Bahasa Melayu as the national language, Article 153, and the status of Malay Rulers,” he added, saying those are the principles that are important to the Malays.

Loke said this when speaking to media after a Pakatan Harapan ceramah at Wisma DAP Muar on Friday (Sept 1) night when asked to comment on Umno supreme council member Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed’s statement.

In a Facebook post, Nur Jazlan said that if DAP really wants the support of Malays through cooperation with Umno, it needs to make big changes for success in GE16.

The Pulai Umno division chief said that there is no other way to convince Malays that DAP today is different from before, apart from it being willing to drop the secular nation agenda and the Malaysia Malaysian slogan in its party constitution.

“Those two agendas continue to traumatise Malays and make them unable to accept DAP. The question is whether DAP dares to make such a big sacrifice for the sake of their political survival,” said Nur Jazlan.

On this, Loke added that voters are more interested in evaluating the track record and the work done by their representatives and not their party’s ideology.

“Even in my own constituencies, both parliament and state seats, I still win with a pretty high majority despite the areas having a high percentage of Malay voters. This shows that voters look at the way we work, our approach and services, not our party ideology,” he said.

Asked if Nur Jazlan’s statement had affected the Pulai and Simpang Jeram by-elections, he said that it did not.

“It has not affected the by-elections as DAP is not contesting in it, the candidates are both from Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah). This is just a person’s opinion. People give their opinions every day, not an issue. That is his right,” he said.