Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua has slammed Umno-owned daily Utusan Malaysia for implying in a report on Wednesday that the DAP had a role in the Sosilawati murders.

Referring to the report as "libellous", the DAP publicity chief said Prime Minister Najib Razak should reprimand the Malay-language daily and order it to apologise.

" Utusan Malaysia has continued with its campaign to libel Pakatan Rakyat leaders and in particular, the DAP, making baseless allegations and insinuations with the specific intent of poisoning the minds of its readers and sowing the seeds of racial hatred," he said.

NONE Pua ( left ) said the DAP was considering legal action against the newspaper to "protect the good name of the party".

In the report on Tuesday, the daily quoted former PKR Youth vice-president Mohd Zahid Md Arip as referring to the DAP as "hypocrites" for being slow to condemn the murders of cosmetics entrepreneur Sosilawati Lawiya and three others.

"Does their silence have something to do with the claims that the main suspects are DAP life members? If it is true, it is clear that DAP is a hypocrite party that fights for the rights of a certain race only," Utusan reported him as saying.

Mohd Zahid is now a supreme council member in Malay rights NGO Perkasa.

Pua said the question of DAP not condemning the murders did not arise as the party had been in the forefront in calling the police the increase their efficiency and effectiveness in fighting crime in the country.

"It is the BN government that has been extremely pleased with the crime situation in Malaysia, which has escalated to record levels before declining recently, according to official government statistics," he said.

Suspects not DAP members

Pua also rubbished claims that the two main suspects, who are lawyers, were party members at any point in time.

"It is a disgusting attempt by the Umno-owned newspaper to utusan malaysia and umno insinuate and allege through its ‘news' report that the murder suspects are life members of DAP, with no attempt at all to verify the allegations," he charged.

He added that even if they were members of any political party, even in the BN, it would have no relation to the crime that they were alleged to have committed.

"A crime is a crime, and even Umno had a leader who was found guilty of murder," he said.

Calling the reporting by Utusan an "unethical and downright unscrupulous attempt to libel DAP", Pua charged that the daily only had the intent to incite racial hatred among its Malay readers.

"Despite this being obvious, the prime minister has repeatedly defended Utusan Malaysia .

"On Sept 18 last year, Najib had, at a breaking-of-fast function at the Sri Utusan Printing Complex, hailed the newspaper for ‘ethical and unbiased' reporting," he said.

"The prime minister's failure to act will not only mean blanket approval for Utusan to continue with its irresponsible, reckless actions against the DAP and Pakatan Rakyat, but it will also mean the height of irresponsibility by jettisoning his own ‘1Malaysia' goal," Pua added.