AUG 28 — Non-Muslim politicians must exercise caution when asked to attend a function in a mosque. 

Reason: While PAS politicians may be broad minded and secure in their religious beliefs, there is little question that many Malays are troubled by the presence of non-Muslims in their prayer areas. 

Serdang MP Teo Nie Ching was forced today to apologise to the Selangor ruler over her surau visit in her constituency this week. 

While she expressed dismay that it has been turned into a controversy by Umno and its newspaper Utusan Malaysia, there is no doubt she was naive. 

The photograph of her speaking at a mosque had been put up on pro-Umno blogs for more than a week before it was published on the front page of Utusan Malaysia. 

For all the goodwill she may have thought the visit would have garnered for her party, all of it has been wiped out. 

Teo claimed she went to the mosque to deliver a donation. She also claimed that her remarks at the mosque did not touch on politics or religion and was only delivered after a she was given an assurance that it was not inappropriate. 

Teo and her DAP colleagues can complain all they want about being the subject of unfair treatment from Umno and Utusan Malaysia. But do they really need to be told that politics is a dirty game? 

The controversy has probably been blown out of proportion. But politicians must understand that perception is everything. And as DAP is still viewed with some suspicion by many in the Malay-Muslim community, the party’s representatives must be more careful if they want to win the public’s hearts and minds. 

“They have their own agenda to demonise the DAP. They are not interested in the truth or finding out the facts,” said Teo today.

If that is true then Teo certainly delivered the ammunition for the attack against her party.