JOHOR BAHRU - DAP must change to become a moderate party to continue to be supported by the Chinese community and Malay voters.
Umno Supreme Council member Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed said DAP who was part of the unity government must follow the BN and Umno formula of success that changed in accordance with the political landscape.
"When speaking to Malay voters in Selangor (in the previous state elections) and Johor (while campaigning), a majority of them stated they could not accept the DAP political ways that were seen to them as still tied to the notion of it being the main Chinese party.
"When I asked why Malays could accept MCA in BN, they would state MCA was not extreme and Umno became the dominant party in the coalition.
"It was different with DAP, they would not accept such secular agendas in the party. Because it is completely against Islamic and Malay Sharia. That's why the Malays were putting a large boundary on whether to accept or support DAP despite them cooperating with Umno in the unity government," he said in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
The Pulai Umno division chief stated if DAP hoped for support from Malays through their cooperation with Umno, the party must be brave enough to make major changes to achieve success in the 16th general election (GE16).
"There is no other way to convince the Malays that DAP today is different from before other than having them willing to drop the Secular Nation agenda and the Malaysia Malaysian slogan in their party constitution.
"Both the agendas continue to become a trauma for the Malays and it causes them not to accept DAP's struggles.
"Despite some Malays have become members, leaders and even representatives, but I think the Malay majority views it as one small method to make the party 'halal' to Malays," he said.
Nur Jazlan who was the Dewan Negara Deputy Speaker said if DAP was still hesitant to perform major changes, it would feel as if it was alienated by Malay voters.
He added Umno would continue to be rejected by Malays as Umno continued the cooperation with DAP in the government.
"Another major situation DAP must face was the wave of Malay voter support toward Pas and it would become stronger in GE16 and the future.
"That's why we can see the extreme political landscape where the Chinese continue to support their party while Malays would move to Pas as their party," he said.