PETALING JAYA: Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin has labelled Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim's resignation from the DAP as a testament to the party's failure to garner support from the Malay community.
"It shows a lot of Malays that a Malay leader cannot survive in DAP," he said.
"The DAP was not only trying to win over Malay voters but also the entire Pakatan Rakyat with Tunku Aziz because the general view is that they do not have strong Malay support."
He said the resignation of the most senior Malay leader in the DAP may affect the opposition in the coming general election.
"Although he is not a big-time politician, it may affect them," he said.
Khairy also lambasted DAP members for their 'hypocrisy' in upholding democratic principles. He said that while the party extols the freedom of speech, its action of openly chastising Tunku Abdul Aziz over his criticism of the Bersih 3.0 rally contradicts this.
"It just shows the party is in consistent, hypocritical and contradictory in its democratic principles," he said.
On DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng's call for Tunku Abdul Aziz to remain in the party, Khairy said: "They should have done something earlier.
"You already humiliated the guy (by dropping him as a senator) and your members chastised him in social media, and now you don't want him to resign? What sort of message are you sending?"
On whether the senior leader's resignation signalled an advantage for Umno in the coming general election, he said: "We are focused on our strengths, we are not really bothered about the weaknesses of our enemies."
Tunku Abdul Aziz had opposed the Bersih 3.0 rally held at Dataran Merdeka and said that its organisers should have accepted the offer from the authorities to hold it at Stadium Merdeka.
He had said that it was "irresponsible" of lawmakers to support the notion that the rally should be held at Dataran Merdeka as he believed it would contravene the law.
Lim had retaliated by saying that Tunku Abdul Aziz's "irresponsible remarks opposing Bersih's right to assemble peacefully and conduct a sit-in protest at Dataran Merdeka" had embarrassed the party and that he was "alone amongst the DAP central executive committee in his stand on Bersih 3.0."
The Penang chief minister had said that although party members were allowed to have dissenting views, the majority decision made by the party leadership should be followed.
Following this, Tunku Abdul Aziz asked the party leadership not to renew his tenure as senator which ends on May 30 and tendered his resignation from the party as he felt his position was "no longer tenable".