Despite DAP's withdrawal from the Barisan Alternatif, the coalition can still represent the interest of the Chinese community and continue to garner its support, said PRM treasurer Koh Swee Yong today.

Koh told malaysiakini that the remaining Chinese in the opposition coalition can also play the role of DAP and attract the community's support.

"In the long run, the split would not affect the Chinese support for BA although in the immediate future the situation may lead to some confusion among the Chinese community," he said.

"The Chinese may have great expectations for BA. They may think the coalition is not united," he added.

Koh pointed out that the public tends to regard DAP as the representative of the Chinese community within the opposition coalition because the party has been struggling for issues which generally affect the Chinese for more than 30 years.

Last Saturday, DAP pulled out of the coalition due to irreconcilable differences with PAS over the Islamic state issue as the fundamental reason.

Keadilan and PRM are also part of the three-year-old coalition which was formed with the hope of providing a potent threat to the ruling Barisan Nasional.

When contacted yesterday, Prof P Ramasamy of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia had said the opposition front was now in a weaker position to deny the BN its two-third majority in the next general elections scheduled in 2004.

The political pundit argued that without DAP, it would be difficult for the BA to form an inter-racial coalition which could match the BN.

The DAP, although multi-racial in character, is predominantly supported by the Chinese.

Economic situation

However, Koh felt that the Chinese support for the opposition usually depended on the country's economic situation.

"If the economy is good, the Chinese support for the opposition would go down, even for DAP," he said.

In the 1999 elections, the DAP managed to secure only 10 parliamentary seats as opposed to 24 seats in 1986 when the country was facing an economic downturn.

Meanwhile, Keadilan's supreme council member Dr Ng Lum Yong said that the Chinese support for the BA would depend on the issue at stake. "We must see what type of issue is involved," he said.

In the Lunas by-election last year, the Chinese are believed to have supported a Malay candidate from Keadilan because of their dissatisfaction towards the government's handling of various issues affecting the community.

Issues such as the vision school, plight of the pig farmers in Negeri Sembilan who lost their livelihoods due to a viral outbreak and Umno's hostile reaction towards the Malaysian Chinese Associations Election Appeal Committee (Suqiu) are believed to be the main catalysts for the shift in support.

'No principle'

However, Gerakan vice-president Dr S Vijayaratnam felt that on the whole, Chinese support for the DAP would diminish.

"Although the DAP has left the coalition, it does not mean that the party would get more support from the Chinese community," he said.

Vijayaratnam said the non-Malays would perceive DAP as having 'no principle'.

"DAP has already experimented with an opposition coalition with the now defunct Semangat 46 in the 1990 general elections before joining BA," he added.

Vijayaratnam said DAP should have known about PAS' stand on the Islamic state before forming the coalition. "One must be consistent with one's stand."