DAP leaders have vowed to stand by their Pakatan Rakyat allies - PAS and PKR - as they rejected federal minister Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz’s invitation to join BN.

NONE DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said Nazri's comment came "out of the blue", and that he was not aware of Nazri’s motives as the party had not mentioned any such possibility.

“We stand by our allies in Pakatan. We are multiracial. Perhaps MCA and Gerakan have lost their respective representation in their constituencies," he told reporters in Penang when asked to comment.

"But the two parties only appeal to one race, while we appeal to all Malaysians. So the question (of the DAP joining BN) does not arise.”

Nazri's remarks had appeared in an interview with Sin Chew Daily yesterday. He also said Gerakan - then in opposition - had been invited to join the Alliance in 1969.

‘Many sacrifices made’

Ipoh Timor MP Lim Kit Siang said DAP leaders have toiled and sacrificed much for their political beliefs over the past 45 years.

NONE Its leaders have been "persecuted and prosecuted in court, (and) detained under the Internal Security Act”.

Some had been "jailed and disqualified as MPs and barred from elected office for five years for standing firm and steadfast on a matter of principle to fight for the rights of all Malaysians transcending race and religion".

"All these sacrifices (are) not just for the DAP to replace MCA in the BN," the senior Lim said in a statement today.

"Only a new politics and a new national compact breaking completely away from the politics of ‘divide and rule’ along ethnic lines (and) subordination of public interests to private greed ... can save Malaysia.”