COMMENT The DAP has never wavered or abandoned the just, democratic and humanitarian struggle of the Palestinian people.

The party looks forward to the day when Palestinians will get back their lands and be recognised by the international community as a nation.

The party condemns in no uncertain terms Israel's annexation of lands and properties belonging to the Palestinian people.

Today, the Palestinians are prisoners on their own land.

Perak DAP chief Nga Kor Ming has reaffirmed the party’s position on the Palestinian question by saying that the DAP is fully behind the democratic and humanitarian struggle waged by Palestinians against the unjust and cruel Zionist regime.

Nga corrected the earlier stand of the Perak economic bureau chief, Chong Zhemin, who said that the Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin should not have barred the two Israeli athletes from participating in the international wind-surfing competition to be held in Malaysia on the grounds that sports and politics should not be mixed.

For this, the Perlis mufti and two members of the Parti Amanah Negara condemned him and questioned the party’s stand on the Palestinian issue.

Whether it was the fault of Khairy or some others in the ministry, why the two Israeli athletes invited in the first place when Malaysia has no diplomatic relations with Israel is not clear.

Simple: if Malaysia has no diplomatic relations with Israel, why invite the athletes and put some impossible conditions for them to fulfill?

Later, Khairy ( photo ) unable to explain this conundrum, sought to hide behind the diplomatic wall of Malaysia's non-existent relationship with Israel as the real reason.

However, it was naive on the part of Chong to say that Khairy should not mix sports with politics when it came to the question of international sports competition.

By saying this, Chong allowed himself and DAP to be ridiculed for not taking a strong stand on the oppression of Palestinians by Israel, a matter very sensitive to Muslims and, to some extent, non-Muslims in Malaysia.

Luckily, Chong's premature or "adventurist" position was rectified by Nga who came out to strongly condemn the oppression of Palestinians by Israel and that DAP will never forsake its responsibilities towards the just and democratic struggle waged by Palestinians against the illegal occupation of their lands by Israel.

Explain the folly

Not inviting two Israeli athletes or imposing impossible conditions on their visits are not as important as the looming question of rights and freedom of Palestinian people who have been oppressed by the Zionist regime of Israel.

Years back, the same argument of not mixing politics with sports was advanced by those who favoured the entry of South Africa's apartheid rugby team into New Zealand.

But the vast majority of New Zealanders refused to hear the argument and boycotted the entry of the team.

Sorry, sports cannot be artificially separated from politics.

The daily oppression of Palestinians in their own land is a testimony to the kind of cruelty and injustice that are prevalent.

How can you invite athletes from Israel and yet pretend nothing is wrong with this country?

Since we have no diplomatic relations with Israel, we should have ruled out their participation in the first place without the need to put impossible conditions.

Did Khairy fail in this? Khairy needs to provide an explanation on this folly.

For those who are out there to demonise the DAP just because of a premature statement of a young member in Perak, just examine its past record of service to the international community.

It must be noted that Malaysia's own stand on the question of human rights in the international arena is selective and more catered for domestic consumption than anything else.

While the Malaysia government has taken a strong stand on the plight of Muslims, it has been rather reticent on the suffering of non-Muslims in the international arena.

P RAMASAMY is Deputy Chief Minister II of Penang and the state assemblyperson for Perai.