"Kalau kau rasa umno terok terhadap Islam dan Melayu, bayangkan sekiranya dap berkuasa".

My earliest recollection of DAP was the Red Rocket. That was what I know of the DAP in my early teens. I did not know who was leading the DAP, I did not know who were members of the DAP, no idea what their political ideologies were....not a brass farthing. Apart from that Red Rocket I had this idea that the DAP was a communist party...a Chinese party. A political party up to no good and wanting to take away from the Malays what little the Malays then had. Where that idea originated I am unsure. Certainly it did not come from my late father because we never discussed politics in our time together. It must have come from my peers with whom I might have, from to time, discussed these things. 

Today I know much more about the DAP. For a start I spent 2009 or thereabouts writing articles for Lim Kit Siang Blog. In that time I read also what Kit Siang posted in his own blog and the many comments by others who read what he posted. When you do this on a regular basis you get a sense and a feel of what DAP and Lim Kit Siang stood for. Overwhelmingly I felt that DAP was making a concerted effort to make itself into a political entity for all Malaysians. 

I have no problems with DAP....but many Malays do. For them the DAP is a clear and present danger to all Malays and to Islam and if asked they will have their reasons for thinking so. There are enough of these anti DAP Malays out there not only for DAP to worry about but also for all right thinking Malaysians to worry about because nothing will cause the fragmentation of our Malaysian society quite like the ignorance of those who think themselves so right in mistakenly accusing the DAP of being a threat to the Malays and to Islam.  

"Soalan aku , dalam bahasa mudah, macam mana kau semacam (secara langsung atau tidak langsung) sokong dap yang terang-terang tidak mesra Islam dan Melayu?!

Kalau kau rasa umno terok terhadap Islam dan Melayu, bayangkan sekiranya dap berkuasa."        

Why would someone, who I thought could think for himself, believe that if DAP ever came into government, the Malays and Islam would suffer? Why? What did he think DAP would do to Islam and to the Malays if the DAP ever won government? Banish Islam to the ends of the earth and have the Malays discriminated against in all things Malaysians? 

And yet even as I despair, there are others who think differently This came to me just a few minutes ago: 

"I followed UMNO's reign in Penang for all those years. In the beginning, UMNO can rule Penang alone! It had majority by itself. Don't need MCA or MIC. But slowly, both orang Melayu and China gave up on UMNO. Melayu left and Chinese also left MCA. Gerakan got the support for a while but now, both Melayu and China support DAP."

So maybe all is not lost. 

But while we celebrate diversity let us also hope that there will be enough of us around to do what is the right for our nation and for our people. While I am a Malay and you, my reader, may not be one, let us measure each other by our ability to treat others as we would like others to treat us. And in this I know that the DAP will not fail us. By any criteria you would care to measure it, umno already has.