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The opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP)  has scored a major propaganda victory by securing the membership  of Jeff Ooi,  the country's most prominent political blogger.

Mr Ooi, who formally joins the DAP  today, would run in the upcoming general election, said Lim Guan Eng,  the party's  secretary-general.

At least a dozen other bloggers and NGO leaders with large  followings are expected to join the DAP and compete in  the polls, Mr Lim said.

Mr Ooi said that merely writing and  criticising the government had its limitations.

'I want to bring change, and to do that I have to get into politics,' said Mr Ooi, 51, an investment analyst, in an interview.  'I can't join the ruling parties because they are all so racial.  Race politics is our blight.'

His six-year-old website, www.jeffooi.com,  is hugely popular, and Mr Ooi hopes to convert that popularity into success at the polls.

Bloggers have recently been under  scrutiny from the government, sensitive to their criticism.

Mr Lim, 52 - who took over the DAP from his  father, Kit Siang, in 2004 - has been  wooing young, western-educated, English-speaking Chinese  to the party, known  for its mainly Chinese, working-class membership.

Mr Lim  persuaded Tony Puah,  a 34-year-old, Oxford-educated information technology tycoon, to join the DAP this year and energise politics with 'new thinking'. In May, Liew Chin Tong,  an Australian-educated political scientist,  and  Cheah Wing Yin,  the former president of the Private Medical Practitioners Association, also joined the DAP.

Chinese-language dailies wrote that the DAP's gain is a loss to the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), the biggest Chinese-only party and senior partner in the ruling National Front coalition.

'Increasingly, more educated, urban Chinese are unhappy with the race policies of the ruling coalition,' said Mr Lim. 'They see the multiracial DAP as a viable alternative.'

'People like Jeff represent the critical middle ground in Malaysian society that is non-racial, secular and democratic.'

Although the DAP is nominally multi-racial,  most of its support comes from urban Chinese, many of whom  are dissatisfied with the Malays-first policies of the coalition.

Traditionally,  most urban Chinese back the DAP, and the more conservative, rural Chinese are for the MCA.

But the MCA wants the equation changed. By quietly recruiting urban Chinese with such schemes as dating clubs, dance clubs, life-long learning clubs and help centres for single mothers, it has added  23,500 Chinese professionals since January.

All political parties are racing to recruit  new members  ahead of a general election  expected by next March.

Political scientist Murugesu Pathmanaban  observes   that while Mr Ooi and others may have made a  big name for themselves,   'winning against powerful and entrenched organisations like the MCA is always an uphill task.  The MCA's network is formidable, and its coffers are limitless.'



Opposition woos young, 'new-thinking' members for Malaysian election