“Mind your own business,” said DAP Organising Secretary Anthony Loke in reaction to an MCA official’s allegation that DAP had refused to distance itself from controversial ex-member Hew Kuan Yau.

The so-called “Superman Hew” quit DAP last July following allegations that he used racist rhetoric during the campaign for the Sarawak state election and after he received flak for supporting China’s claims to portions of the South China Sea.

Yesterday, MCA Religious Harmony Bureau Secretary Chris Daniel Wong asked DAP to explain why Hew was still speaking in its forums. Wong’s statement came a day after a Gerakan official posed a similar question.

Loke said DAP had not condoned Hew’s indiscretions, but added that it was the party’s prerogative to decide whom it would invite to its events. MCA and its Barisan Nasional partners had “no business” telling DAP how to conduct its affairs, he said in an interview with FMT.

“How we manage our party and whom we invite to our ceramah is our business,” he added.

Asked whether Hew would be speaking at future DAP events, he said there was no directive from the party’s headquarters to the branches as to whom they could invite.

“Hew was invited to a few functions by the branches after he quit the party,” he said. “The invitations were not extended by the headquarters.”

Hew first stirred controversy in May, when a video recording of his campaign speech went viral. Urging Sarawak voters to support DAP candidate Abdul Aziz Isa, he said Aziz could help “screw the Malays, the big corrupt politicians.”

His decision to quit DAP came after he was widely criticised for a Facebook article that said, “The South China Sea belongs to China. Don’t oppose China just because you’re anti-communist.”