This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on February 7, 2019

A couple of days ago, a friend alerted me to a Facebook posting of an alleged instruction by Umno HQ to the party cybertroopers to step up the attack on the Dap.

It seemed that someone had got hold of what appears to be a Whatsapp message sent by one Umno operative to another, took a screenshot and posted it on Facebook. In the message, the sender reminded the receiver to “update issues already coordinated by HQ”.

The message also read: “Instruction from HQ. Now ensure every posting is focused on Dap and if possible use creativity to link it to race and religion issues. Focus on Dap no matter what the issue is”.

For all you know the message could be fake.

But this particular message aside, there’s no denying that the Dap has been the target of Umno and of late Pas of all sorts of accusations. Forget cybertroopers – they can say all kinds of things that range from too wild to ridiculous – but take a look what Umno and Pas leaders have seen saying against the Dap.

Even Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Pas president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang have no qualms saying things which can make neutral people cringe. I have no intention to repeat what they have said. Suffice to say that their message, which is in the public domain, is that Dap is anti-Malay and anti-Islam. Thus, Malays must not support the Dap  - stopping short of saying it would be a sin for a Muslim to do so. But in not so many words that’s what they meant. The sad thing is a section of Malays believe the Dap wants to destroy their religion.

But the accusation that Dap is anti-Malay and anti-Islam is nothing new. Party founder Dr Chen Man Hin in a book on Dap veterans published in 2016 said that since its inception the party had been “slandered as a Chinese party which is anti-Malay simply because it wanted the rights of all communities to be taken care of fairly”.

A party insider tells me that from 1969 when the party was formed right to the 2000s, the anti-Malay, anti-lslam rhetoric would surface only during elections. “But from 2008 until today, such attacks are carried out continuously and systematically”, says the insider. And the attacks are getting more vicious.

Could it be because Dap is getting stronger? And could it be also that Dap is attracting more Malays to become members, so much so, Umno and Pas are feeling threatened?

Political observers cannot say for sure about Umno or Pas feeling threatened. And the Dap insider says the number of Malays in Dap is still very small despite the prominent names in its midst. People like national laureate Datuk A Samad Said, for example.

A culture and arts activist who is close to Samad tells me the poet chose Dap because “the party never wavers and stands true to its struggle”.

As early as 1969, two Malay Dap candidates won seats in the Perak and Negeri Sembilan state assemblies.  They were Ibrahim Singgeh who won the Tapah Road seat in Perak and Hassan Ahmad who won the Negeri Sembilan state seat of Si Rusa.

In the 1974 general election, when Dap mounted a big challenge to wrest Perak, the party fielded 33 candidates, of whom 14 were Malays. But Dap failed to take the state.

And over the years, many Malay politicians emerged in the Dap – the likes of former Cuepacs president Ahmad Nor, Ahmad Ton, Fadzlan Yahya, former Umno man Arif Sabri, Zairil Khir Johari and many more.

Yet Dap has always struggled to shake off the anti-Malay, anti-Islam tag.

Despite all the good work of its leaders there are even today within the Dap people who shoot themselves in the foot by saying things which frighten the Malays, or say things which can be easily exploited.

But it can’t be denied that there are people in the party who have extreme views which differ from that of its leadership and even the party ideology. Perhaps they are frustrated at being spurned by Malays and seeing that there are other parties in Pakatan Harapan taking care of Malay interests, these people would want Dap to focus on Chinese interests.

The irony is it was Dr Mahathir Mohamad who is now chairman of Pakatan Harapan, who started the ball rolling in labelling Dap a Chinese chauvinist party when he was Umno president years ago.

This Mahathir himself has admitted. And he is on record as saying that “the image that I created of Dap was not really true”.

That helped a little bit, but not enough given the daily Umno and Pas onslaught on the Dap. Obviously more needs to be done. Dap’s allies in particular Amanah and Bersatu have big roles to play in helping their coalition friend.

As for the Dap itself, they ought to continue to prove Samad Said right.

Mohsin Abdullah is contributing editor at The Edge. He has covered politics for more than four decades.