Some 300 DAP supporters braved the sweltering heat today to accompany their candidate, Choong Siew Onn, to Wisma Sri Bentong in the small town of Ketari to file his nomination papers for the upcoming by-election.

Although Choong's supporters were outnumbered by the 2,000 supporters of ruling coalition Barisan Nasional who flooded the street in front of the nomination centre, opposition party leaders believe that the lack of numbers today is not an indication of the actual results on polling day next Sunday.

Keadilan Youth leader Diong Chi Tzuoh  who was present to give support to his partys former ally  said, "In Indera Kayangan, we had thousands of supporters at the nomination centre but we still lost."

While there were no flags and banners of BAs component parties  PRM, Keadilan and PAS  their leaders, such as Kelantan state assembly speaker PAS Wan Abdul Rahim Wan Abdullah, and Keadilan supreme council members Abdul Rahman Yusof and N Gobalakrishnan, were present.

They were accompanied by DAP heavyweights including national chairperson Lim Kit Siang, secretary-general Kerk Kim Hock, deputy president Karpal Singh, central executive committee members Chong Eng, Teresa Kok, Tan Kok Wai, Goh Kheng Huat, Fong Kui Lun and Fong Po Kuan.

Key leaders no show

However, visibly absent from todays nomination were top leaders of the opposition BA coalition.

Asked about that today, Karpal said it was not a problem as other leaders were present.

"Even one BA member or leader present here shows that the opposition is still united. It means that they (the others) have not boycotted us," he told reporters outside the centre.

"Although we have left the BA on matters of principle, the opposition can still co-operate on common issues," he added.

However, relations between DAP and its former partners in BA have not been all that cordial and heated words have been exchanged since DAP quit the opposition pact last September.

This led to the party to boycott the campaign in the Indera Kayangan by-election two months ago where Keadilan lost to BNs MCA.

According to party leader Lim, Ketari voters will have the historic responsibility in the coming week to decide whether the BN can exploit the people's fears of terrorism and extremism.

"The question is whether ... many pressing issues of justice, freedom, democracy and good governance would be completely lost and drowned when the BN plays its terror card accompanied with the politics of falsehood and lies," he said in a press statement today.

Lim added that the by-election would also be a test as to whether Gerakan leader Dr Lim Keng Yaik's politics of lies and falsehood has still a "market" in Malaysia.

Islamic state

He reiterated that DAP left the opposition coalition over differences with former partner PAS over the Islamic state issue.

"The question is whether despite these differences, there is room for DAP and BA to co-operate on areas of common agreement  on justice, freedom, democracy and good governance," he said.

"This was different from Gerakan which overnight abandoned its attack on the Islamic state concept to support Umno's version that Malaysia had always been an Islamic state," he added.

In the Ketari by-election, due to be held on March 31, Choong will be contesting against BNs Gerakan candidate Yum Ah Ha.

The seat fell vacant following the death of Loke Koon Kam of Gerakan. In the 1999 general elections, Loke defeated Choong with a slim 231-vote majority, garnering 5,874 votes.

Ketari has 17,143 registered voters, of which 95 are postal votes. Chinese Malaysians comprise 53.83 percent (9,228) of the constituency, Malay Malaysians 39.12 percent (6,706) and Indian Malaysians 5.21 percent (843).

The Orang Asli comprise 1.3 percent (223), bumiputra from Sabah and Sarawak 0.21 percent (36) and others 0.33 percent (57).