I was shocked by the nomination day statement by the PAS candidate for Simpang Jeram, Dr. Mohd Mazri Yahya who pledged to break down a purported wall of racial animosity allegedly built by the DAP.

Is the PAS candidate for Simpang Jeram Dr. Mohd Mazri another Hadi Awang who spread lies, falsehoods, fake news, and hate speech without having substantiate them?

I have been with the DAP for close to six decades and the creation of a wall of racial animosity among the races had never been an objective of the DAP!

In fact, the very opposite is the case. Right from the very first general election that the DAP contested in 1969, the DAP has put up a multil-racial slate of state assembly and parliamentary candidates.

Dr. Mazri may not know that in the 1969 General Election, two DAP Malay State Assemblymen were elected, but he should know that in 1987, I was accused of being anti-Chinese because Ahmad Nor was the DAP candidate in the Gopeng by-election, and although Ahmad Nor lost in the by-election, he went on to become the first DAP Malay Member of Parliament in 1990.

Dr. Mazri cannot be unaware that at present, the DAP has three Malay Members of Parliament, or is he suggesting that the three DAP Malay MPs, Syahredzan Johan, the MP for Bangi, Syerleena Abdul Rashid, the MP for Bukit Bendera and Young Syefura Othman, the MP for Bentong, are not Malays or Muslims?

Is Dr. Mazri aware that DAP MP for Bandar Melaka Lim Guan Eng went to jail in 1998 and sacrificed his parliamentary position and qualification in the defence of the dignity of an underaged Malay girl?

Is Dr. Mazri aware that in the Teluk Intan by-election in May 2014, Hadi reminded PAS members that DAP had helped PAS when the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition tried to oust the party from ruling Kelantan during the 1977 Kelantan Emergency?

Yes, Hadi subsequently repaid DAP’s help in 1977 by making wild and preposterous allegations that the DAP was anti-Malay, anti-Islam, anti-Royalty, communist, and promoting Islamophobia, but Hadi had not been able to advance one iota of evidence to substantiate his allegations against the DAP or to lodge a report to the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) Islamophobia Observatory?

Is Dr. Mazri going to follow Hadi’s example to spread lies, falsehoods, fake news, and hate speech without any substance or basis?

Is Dr. Mazri going to be an honest, responsible, and trustworthy politician whose every word is based on fact or reason, or is he going to be like Hadi Awang, to be a dishonest, irresponsible, and untrustworthy political leader who tell lies, falsehoods, fake news, and hate speech?

Can Dr. Mazri explain why the wild and preposterous allegations that the DAP was anti-Malay, anti-Islam, anti-Royalty, communist, and promoting Islamophobia were not made in the first 30 years of the DAP’s life, but after year 2000 starting with the infamous film Tanda Putera?

Lately, Hadi talked about UMNO and Amanah were “DAP’s Gurkha”.

Was Mahathir Mohamad acting as DAP’s Gurkha when he announced in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2018 as Prime Minister that Malaysia would ratify all the UN international covenants, which caused Hadi to go on a rampage against the DAP for masterminding the plan to ratify the International Covenant of the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD)?

I await Dr. Mazri’s answers.