Well, that escalated quickly.
Soon after surviving the trial by fire that was an online smear campaign (which, ironically enough, sought to portray her as someone who would look pretty good in a two-piece bikini), 26-year old Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud of the Democratic Action Party has been officially tapped over the weekend as the party’s candidate for the Teluk Intan by-election due to take place on May 31.
DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng announced Dyana Sofya’s candidacy on Saturday at the DAP operations centre for the Teluk Intant by-election. The DAP’s choice of a young Malay woman candidate is certainly giving the party a lot of talking points deflecting the percception that it is a predominantly Chinese party, with no room for young blood to step and represent.
“We want to portray DAP’s multi-racial philosophy, where we fight for all Malaysians,” said Lim, as reported by The Malay Mail Online. “We don’t want to be caught in Barisan Nasional’s (BN) racial trap that is played up to maintain their hold on power.”
Dyana Sofya, who has up until now been party veteran Lim Kit Siang’s political secretary and who grew up in an UMNO family, also homed in on the seeming novelty of her candidacy. “The racial barrier must be destroyed so that a new Malaysia can arise,” she said. “As a Malay-Muslim, I will surely uphold these two identities.”
The Teluk Intan constituency for whose favour she will be campaigning is made up of 42% ethnic Chinese, 38% Malay and 19% ethnic Indian voters.
Video: KiniTV
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That’s not Lim Kit Siang’s political secretary in a bikini, that’s Pauleen Luna
