COMMENT There has been plenty of discussion in the last few weeks on the difficulties the DAP faces in gaining support among the Malays.

The party is perceived as being anti-Malay and anti-Islam, images it is said that are zealously fostered by Umno and the mainstream media it owns or is owned by the state which, in effect, is tantamount to being owned by Umno.

The emergence of hostility between DAP and PAS over the past year over the hudud issue has only helped to reinforce the portrayal of DAP as anti-Malay and anti-Islam.