So, I guess for an educated bloke like Pua, Malay-based nationalist parties are only clean when they embrace the DAP.

This is exactly the kind of horse manure that right-wing propagandists use when they attack Harapan and Anwar. This is the Kool-Aid which the base laps up but does not stand up to intellectual scrutiny or the scrutiny of religious and racial propagandists.

Pua said: "We have nothing wrong with religiously pious politicians. There is nothing wrong with that. But we fear that they abuse religion for political and personal gains.”

This is exactly how the trouble started when it comes to the religious discourse in this country. The DAP was supposed to be the secular component of Harapan, yet the DAP stuck their snouts into the religious provinces of the majority hoping to curry favour with the majority.

Keep in mind under Harapan the first time around, the religious bureaucracy was funded up the wazoo, Mujahid Yusof Rawa turned into a pious Muslim from a progressive one, Harapan attacked Maryam Lee for her unveiling book, attacked LGBT activists, attacked women’s rights group and generally had a religious agenda which mirrored PAS’ in many ways. Keep in mind, the DAP did nothing to stop this.

This is why I have always maintained that the DAP, and indeed all non-Malay political operatives, should be strictly secular in terms of how they present their ideas and agendas. They should not give in to the temptation of thinking that they could go the easy route and manipulate religious sentiment for populist appeal.  

‘Working relationships’

So, I guess Pua is right when he says that the DAP has nothing against religious pious politicians because they certainly did bupkis when the religious political operatives from their side were running riot when they were in power and they certainly are not doing anything now.

And of course, Umno and DAP have had working relationships, even when they were not sharing the same political bed.

Ambassador to the United States Nazri Abdul Aziz said it best when he got into a spat with Gerakan in 2018: “I said the voice of the Chinese after the 2013 general election is DAP. Is that wrong? I am friends with DAP because I respect democracy.

“I want to carry out tourism work in Seremban and Penang. These are DAP areas. I cannot leave them aside.”

The problem has always been that political operatives from the DAP have this holier-than-thou attitude which is completely detached from reality.

Claiming on one hand that corrupt race-based parties are anathema to Harapan and on the other working with them has created a dissonance in the base which in turn manifest in the kind of toxic behaviour Harapan supporters engage in online.

This is why some people have an animus against the DAP. They say manure like not working with race-based parties but in reality, have always worked in some way or another with them.

Loke said: “The speech, which is an attack on the coalition government’s main coalition partner, is uncalled for.

“Any provocative statement against coalition partners is not in line with the stance and direction of the party.”

And this is another problem with what Pua said. It makes Loke sound like a running dog for Umno, which of course, is how the DAP characterised the MCA for decades.

Instead of demonising the MCA and learning from their mistakes, what the DAP is attempting to do is play both sides. People like Pua want to continue dispensing the Kool-Aid aid but also use Umno to further the political fortunes of Anwar and themselves.

Pua is no truth teller, but I am pretty sure he is smart enough to know that the base can’t handle the truth.