DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng has slammed Abdul Hadi Awang for lying when the PAS president said poor turnout by Muslim voters in the recent general election resulted in Perikatan Nasional’s loss.

Lim, who is also Bagan MP, said Hadi had also wrongly claimed that non-Muslims turned out in droves from near and far to “support DAP”, with a turnout by non-Muslims of 98% compared to a mere 60% turnout of Muslims.

Hadi was once again propagating Perikatan’s racist, extremist and false narrative by complaining about the alleged poor turnout by Muslim voters on polling day, said Lim in a statement.

“Clearly, facts and figures as well as granular data proves beyond reasonable doubt that Hadi was simply lying when he said the Muslim voter turnout was only 60% as compared to 98% for non-Muslims,” he also said.

He noted that data scientist Thevesh Theva had repudiated Hadi’s figures of voter turnout based on religion as false and baseless. 

“How can more non-Muslims have voted than Muslims, when in Hadi’s home state of Terengganu – a 95% Malay/Muslim-majority state – had a turnout of 80.2%, the highest for a state in the country? The lowest turnout was in the non-Muslim majority state of Sarawak at only 59.1%,” said Lim.

“Turnout in Hadi’s Marang seat was also at 82.8%, which Thevesh said was the seventh-highest in the country. 

“The parliamentary seat with highest turnout was in the 95% Muslim-majority seat of Putrajaya at 85.5%, while the lowest was in the non-Muslim-majority seat of Limbang at 47.1%. 

“In fact, the top-20 voter turnout were all Muslim-majority parliamentary seats and the bottom-20 were all non-Muslim-majority seats,” said the former finance minister.

Lim also slammed the Marang MP for saying that non-voting Muslims had committed a colossal sin by disobeying the Holy Prophet’s command to not retreat when the “enemies of Islam” were on the attack. 

“This is a racial and extremist slur not only against non-Muslims but also a baseless slur against Muslims.”

The DAP leader said non-Muslims were not enemies of Islam but had opposed PAS for continuing to threaten to diminish and erode the fundamental rights enshrined in the Federal Constitution and interfere in the lifestyle of non-Muslims. 

He also disputed Hadi’s argument that it was obligatory for Muslims to vote in order to put Muslims in power, pointing out that a Muslim is the prime minister and there are only nine non-Muslims out of the cabinet’s 28 ministers.

“The failure of PAS to win the federal government despite Perikatan Nasional’s desperate attempt to rile up extremist and racist tensions with false Christianisation and Jewish conspiracy theories has shown their irresponsible nature to win at all costs,” he said. – December 23, 2022.