DAP vice-chairperson Karpal Singh's call, " Get your head out of the sand " to Keadilan and PRM over PAS' hudud (Islamic penal code) issue is rather perplexing.

We are sure that Karpal, as a lawyer, is fully aware that the hudud law is confined strictly to Muslims, and if the majority of Muslims in a state like Terengganu have no serious objections to these laws, I do not see why Karpal is creating such a din over it.

Terengganu is a state in which more than 90 percent of the people follow Islam. It is their right to decide the type of laws they want to follow.

DAP is basically a Chinese party with a sprinkling of Indians and hardly any Muslims. Such a party will not contribute much to the development of a united Malaysian society. Besides, DAP's prime time is over, it has reached its zenith of politics and is now in a dwindling phase, with its leadership overstaying its welcome.

Creativity and recreation, new blood, youthful vibrance and novelty are wanting in the party which has been good as an opposition. Nowhere in its checkered history has one witnessed it being able to attract Malay Malaysians into its fraternity.

In the ever advancing civilisation, parties which cater for one racial community will naturally become irrelevant and DAP is well nigh on that road to oblivion.

Before the final rot, it will be rather wise for DAP members and supporters to move forward with human unity and not dwell in a fruitless confrontation with PAS, which has a spiritual philosophy attached to its political struggle unlike DAP which has no religious moral code blended with its seemingly democratic struggle.

DAP must transcend its confines of racial and religious prejudice and sentiments and take up the challenge of building the new polity of a truly multiethnic party, akin to Keadilan.

If they cannot recreate their party, then join Keadilan, just like many of the former DAP stalwarts have done. Besides that Karpal must take the initiative to find out the reasons why DAP stalwarts have continuously abandoned the party over the years since its founding.

I see DAP's over-reactions to the hudud law as a political ploy to attract the Chinese and Indian Malaysians into their fold. If that is one of the reasons, then we sympathise with DAP for it will not bear much fruit. Hopefully Karpal's snipes at Keadilan and PRM are not the dying convulsions of a worn-out DAP.

DAP should take the effort to open a new paradigm for its reason for existence, make itself more appropriate to the changing landscape of Malaysian politics after the Anwar Ibrahim political upheaval and recreate its political foundation, failing which opt to join Keadilan .