'DAP has made huge changes' - Ahmad Maslan

JOHOR BAHRU - DAP's participation in the Unity Government needs to be welcomed with open arms because the party has made huge changes in the party's ideology and struggle.

Umno Supreme Council (MKT) member Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan said, DAP is committed to defend four points in the Federal Constitution through the 2012 Shah Alam Declaration and the 2016 DAP@50 Declaration.

"In both declarations, they support the position of Islam as the Federal religion; support the special rights of Malays and Bumiputeras, support the position and sovereignty of Malay Kings, and supports Bahasa Melayu as the National Language.

"In my view, they made a correct statement, as we know there was an agreement of the Unity Government last December in which those four things were included in the agreement," he said when met here on Friday.

Ahmad Maslan said this when asked to comment on the statement of Umno MKT member Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed who wants DAP to change into a moderate party so that it can continue to be supported by the Chinese community and Malay voters.

Nur Jazlan in a statement on his Facebook page said if it is true that DAP expects the support of the Malays through cooperation with Umno, the party needs to dare to make major changes to achieve success in the 16th General Election (GE16).

Meanwhile, Ahmad Maslan who is also the Johor Umno Deputy Chief said that DAP is one of the parties in Unity Government which consists of 19 parties.

"This Unity Government reflects the diverse communities, races, religions and ethnicities including Sabah and Sarawak in our country.

"This situation does not apply to the Perikatan Nasional (PN) group, on the contrary, this Unity Government group clearly symbolises the plural identity of Malaysians," he said.

It was reported earlier that some parties claimed that the Malays would continue to reject Umno for cooperating with DAP, including claiming that BN's poor performance in the state elections on August 12 was due to the rejection of Malay voters.

On December 16, five major political parties, PH, BN, Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) and Parti Warisan (Warisan) signed a memorandum of understanding in Putrajaya to form a stable Unity Government.