DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang today threw out an olive branch to former ally Parti Keadilan Rakyat (Keadilan) by suggesting a possible merger between the two parties to form a stronger opposition force.

Lim made the surprising offer today during a press conference at the DAP headquarters in Petaling Jaya, Kuala Lumpur.

"If Keadilan is prepared to break free from PAS and its subservience to PAS' Islamic state agenda, then DAP and Keadilan should explore the possibility of a merger ..." he said.

According to Lim, the merger should be based on the "triple objectives of restoring meaningful democracy, establishing good governance and defending the 46-year Merdeka social contract of Malaysia as a secular democracy with Islam as the official religion."

However, the DAP leader said he had yet to approach Keadilan directly with his merger proposal.

When contacted, Keadilan deputy president Dr Syed Husin Ali said his party was open to further discussion on the idea.

"This is not something to decide on the spur of the moment, but the possibilities are always there. Keadilan will discuss the matter," he told malaysiakini.

Three lost

At the press conference, Lim conceded that the pre-election clash between the two opposition parties had led to the loss of at least three seats to the ruling Barisan Nasional. This came about as a result of the split in opposition votes in three-cornered fights.

The three seats are the Taiping parliamentary seat and the Bercham and Simpang Pulai state seats, all in Perak, where opposition votes, when combined, exceeded those scored by the BN candidates.

The DAP leader himself, however, made a triumphant return to opposition politics when he won the Ipoh Timor parliamentary seat by trouncing MCA incumbent Thong Fah Chong with a resounding10,000-vote majority.

The party also performed well in comparison with PAS and Keadilan both which suffered severe losses in Sunday's polls.

Keadilan could only defend one of the five parliamentary seats it won in 1999, while its opposition Barisan Alternatif ally PAS was defeated in Terengganu and came close to losing Kelantan to BN as well.

On the other hand, DAP increased its parliamentary representation from 10 to 12 seats, while it improved its state seats score by one to 13.

Nevertheless, the opposition number has been reduced to 21, about 10% of parliamentary seats, when in 1999 it had won 41 seats.

'Holier than thou' critics

Lim also rapped naysayers who had argued that the 2004 general election results indicated a return to racial politics with the Malays in government and the Chinese in the opposition.

Among them were Keadilan deputy leader Syed Husin who claimed that the overwhelming victory for BN may aggravate racial polarisation and tension.

"This is utter bunkum," said Lim. "The DAP is (not) and has never been a Chinese opposition. We have always been a Malaysian opposition speaking up for the welfare and rights of all races and communities.

"How can DAP be a Chinese opposition when out of the present batch of its 12 MPs, two are Indians, namely deputy chairperson Karpal Singh and deputy secretary-general M Kulasegaran?

"Two out of 12 MPs is 16.6% of our parliamentary representation, very much higher than the MIC's or the Indian population ratio in the country," he added.

The DAP veteran also said the country should now be able to take a breather from "Islamic politics" which had dominated the national agenda for the past five years.

"Let us not plunge back into racial politics ... I hope these opposition leaders and analysts will come down from their high horses and drop their 'holier than thou' attitudes which can make no contribution whatsoever to the defence and promotion of a democratic system in our plural society," he said.