DAP blamed Pakatan Harapan foes for playing up the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) issue as a strategy to turn it into a bogeyman and reduce Malay support for the ruling coalition, said one of its senior strategists.

Two DAP assemblymen are among seven individuals detained under anti-terror laws on October 10 for what the police said as attempts to revive the LTTE.

The controversy has been spun by PH’s enemies, particularly Umno, to paint the DAP as a bogeyman, said DAP political education chief Liew Chin Tong.  

Such a ploy has been used ever since 2008, when the non-Malay dominated DAP started working in alliance with other parties which drew a substantial amount of support from Malays, said Liew.

These parties included PAS, a one-time partner from 2008 to 2015, and now Bersatu and Amanah, which are part of the PH coalition in federal power, said Liew, also the deputy defence minister.

“The main idea of making DAP a bogeyman is not to destroy the DAP but to destroy other parties who are with DAP so that they feel they have distanced themselves from the DAP, especially if they are a Malay-led party,” Liew told The Malaysian Insight.

“They say that DAP is the source of all problems and that the party is responsible for the May 13 (racial riots), that we are communists. All of which are untrue. This so that Malays don’t support DAP’s partners.”    

The aim behind the strategy is to keep Umno in power, said Liew, adding that before 2008, when DAP was weak and a lone opposition party, it was not considered a threat.

“They say DAP is the worst in the world. This is the political perception not just today. We’ve always had to deal with this.”

Liew believed that just like before, DAP would be able to overcome the LTTE issue as along as its partners, Bersatu, Amanah and PKR, realised the strategy for what it was.

“We’ve always had to contend with this and what was important is that all Pakatan leaders realise (the perception war) and the importance of all of us getting support from all sections of society.”

Indian PH leaders have criticised the arrest of Malacca executive councillor and Gadek assemblyman G. Saminathan and Seremban Jaya assemblyman P. Gunasekaran.

They have questioned why the duo were detained without trial under The Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) given that PH had once campaigned to repeal the law.

“It is highly irresponsible to detain and charge them when no links with the LTTE exists. Talk of the revival of the LTTE does not make any sense in the Malaysian context,” the Indian leaders said.

Sources within DAP said the arrests have caused confusion among members and supporters as the party had in the past campaigned to repeal Sosma.

They also questioned why these arrests occurred now given that the Tamil community in Malaysia had always sympathised with the LTTE and the plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka who have endured decades of discrimination and oppression.

The suffering by Sri Lanka’s Tamil community at the hands of Colombo is likened to the pain inflicted by the Israeli government towards the Palestinians, they said.

So the question among DAP members is why is the Malaysian government able to support the Palestinians and organisations, such as Hamas, but not the LTTE, the party source said. – October 17, 2019.