Its secretary Chan Foong Hin said BN had radicalised itself after losing power in the last general election and forming the Muafakat Nasional political pact with Islamist party PAS.
Chan said instead of engaging in better policy debates to win back votes, Umno and PAS aimed to gain Malay and Muslim support through “walking a more radical and extremist racial and religious pathway”.
The Kota Kinabalu MP said this had caused further polarisation and it was a retrogressive move for Malaysia, an ethnically-diverse nation.
“Ironically, Umno had also maintained a traditional alliance with the MCA and the MIC.
“And then when it came to the Kimanis by-election, they had managed to ask other Sabah-based opposition parties, such as the Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) and Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (STAR), to make way for it.
“Even the one and only MP from Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS), Arthur Kurup, had been seen campaigning happily with Umno’s Hishammuddin Hussein.
“Are these Sabahan opposition parties aware of what they are ‘pawning’ away to Umno?” Chan said to reporters after distributing mandarin oranges and calendars with other DAP leaders at Foh Sang and Bornion Centre here yesterday.
Kota Kinabalu Mayor Nordin Siman was also present.
Chan urged Kimanis voters to assess for themselves the kind of politics played up by Umno and PAS.
“PAS has publicly stated more than once that non-Muslims should not be allowed to hold any high positions such as the post of finance minister.
“And every time Umno MPs debate in Parliament, apart from creating a sense of crisis that ‘the Malay society is losing its rights’, they never really engage much in discussions with substance.
“Even the recent Chinese New Year decoration incident in SMK Pusat Bandar Puchong was the result of instigation by an organisation that shared similar extreme views as Umno,” Chan said.
In a letter to the school’s principal, Rohani Mohd Nor, Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia (Putra) claimed that it had received complaints from parents about “excessive” Chinese New Year decorations at the school.
However, several Cabinet ministers, led by Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, visited the secondary school to lend their support.
Chan said organisations closely related to Umno had ceaselessly continued to stir up racial sentiments and create a sense of insecurity among the Malays which led to the call for Chinese lanterns to be removed from the school.
On the other hand, he said, MCA had aggressively attacked the government’s inability to control racial tension.
“To the voters of Kimanis, please clearly see that the people who created the crisis were none other than the same kind of people in MCA and Umno,” he said.
Chan said the ruling government needed more East Malaysian political forces that believed in promoting multicultural values to play an important role to counter the “hate politics” by Umno and PAS.
“Ethnic relations are absolutely harmonious under the Sabah government led by Warisan. Here, you have Chief Minister Shafie Apdal, a Muslim leader, who can proudly proclaim a two-day Christmas holiday for Sabahans.
“When compared with Umno or PAS leaders, the difference is like night and day.”
Kimanis voters will go to the polls on Jan 18 to choose either Warisan’s Karim Bujang or BN’s Mohamad Alamin for their new MP.