DAP’S drive to make itself a more appealing party to Malay voters is paying off, lawyer-politician Syahredzan Johan.

Perceptions of Malays who join the multiracial but largely Chinese opposition party are slowly improving, thanks to urbanisation and greater exposure of Malays to what the party has done, the political secretary to DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang told The Malaysian Insight.

“With higher education and urbanisation, more are now studying, working and living in Pakatan Harapan (PH) states,” said the activist-turned-politician in an interview at a cafe in Bangi, Selangor.

“Take the azan issue, for instance. Before this, our political rivals liked to say that the call to prayer will be stopped in the DAP states, but nothing has happened in Penang, Selangor or Negri Sembilan.”

He said the Malays who live in these states have been able to see the issues for themselves.

If Syahredzan, who is speculated to be contesting the Bangi parliamentary seat in the next general election, is named as a candidate, he will be the latest in a string of Malays DAP has fielded as candidates in recent years.

The 39-year-old said he remains hopeful that DAP will continue to gain more acceptance among Malay voters because of other young Malay elected representatives who have paved the way in the party.

These include Ketari assemblyman Young Syefura Othman and former Johor exco Sheikh Umar Bagharib Ali. Like these two, Jamaliah Jamaluddin, the Bandar Utama assemblyman, was another young Malay whom DAP fielded in the 2018 general election and won.

“They are able to show that the Malays themselves are diverse and DAP able to cater for all this despite suggestions to the contrary.”

Before them, there was Zairil Khir Johari, who was Bukit Bendera MP from 2013-2018. He is now the Tanjong Bunga assemblyman in Penang.

Having come from a comfortable Malay middle-class background himself, Syahredzan is keen to impress upon voters that Malaysians, be they Malays, Chinese or Indians, are diverse.

“As such, this notion that a Malay politician can only come from a Malay party is no longer true. More important is the values they stand for, which is against injustice and corruption,” he said.

But while that is something that has to be worked on, Syahredzan is more concerned about the general Malaysian voter.

“As Pakatan Harapan, we have to convince voters again why they need to give us another chance,” he said.

“We need to give them a reason to vote for us again.”

Despite DAP and PH losing the Malacca and Johor state elections, Syahredzan said there is still much to hope for.

“If you look at the Johor polls results, Barisan Nasional did not improve a lot in terms of popular vote. They only improved by 4% (38.68% in 2018 to 42.67% in 2022). What happened was that our 2018 votes went to Perikatan Nasional,” he said.

“This is because many of our voters did not turn out to vote. But with party elections for PKR and DAP over, I believe that PH can consolidate our strength and regain voter support.”

Syahredzan was recently named by DAP senior, outgoing Bangi MP Ong Kian Ming, as the latter’s representative in the constituency after Ong announced that he will not be contesting in the 15th general election.

Syahredzan said while he is hopeful about contesting in Bangi, the decision is ultimately up to the DAP leadership. – July 6, 2022.