Johor opposition chief Hasni Mohammad has hit back at DAP Senator Liew Chin Tong's call for Tanjung Piai voters to defend the Pakatan Harapan government.

While lauding Liew for his honesty in admitting that Tanjung Piai would not be an easy battle for Harapan, Hasni (above) took aim at the track record of Liew's party.

"As a citizen of Malaysia and a Johor native, I want to remind Senator Liew Chin Tong that the Malays of Johor are of a different character. They are really level-headed and dynamic in nature," he said in a statement today.

Responding to Liew's claim that the "PAS-Umno alliance has no serious ideas or plans for the people, except to harp on extreme racial and religious anxieties", Hasni said that "issues of identity and privileges of the Malays were still important for the Malays of Johor".

"'Malaysia Baru' is very repressive and is threatening the culture and our lives in this country. We can see how, day by day, DAP leaders have questioned and ridiculed us as Malays," Hasni claimed.

He defended the PAS-Umno "Muafakat Nasional" pact as a unifying vessel to resist anti-Malay and anti-Islam forces, which Hasni said were strong in the 'Malaysia Baru' era.

"It is time for Malays to come out in droves to reject Pakatan Harapan in the most democratic and mature way - through the ballot box."

Hasni claimed that DAP's opposition to the tie-up between PAS and Umno was rooted in their distrust of the political thinking of Malays and Islam.

"DAP is trying to portray the Umno-Pas alliance as radical, racist and extreme.

"They assume the Malays will become wild and are not civilised and have the potential to act violently and trample on the non-Malays with no regard for national unity."

"Unfortunately, Bersatu, which has allied itself with DAP, seems willing to allow this to happen, assuming that DAP can be 'tamed' for the sake of power. Maybe DAP and Harapan forget Johor Malays are rational and civilised. 

"For now, the people have become aware that a vote for Harapan is like a banana that is gold on the outside, rotten on the inside."

Hasni went on to state his view that the nomination of MCA's Wee Jeck Seng as the BN candidate for the by-election has proven that the unification of the ummah through PAS and Umno has not compromised the understanding, principles of consensus and power-sharing among the component parties of BN."

"We are not the Taliban and racists as Harapan wants to see us as," he said.