Flares were set off inside the hall during the Nothing To Hide 2.0 Forum in Shah Alam August 13, 2017. — Picture by Miera Zulyana

SHAH ALAM, Aug 13 — A Chinese DAP youth worker was hailed as a hero for risking his life to save a group of Malays from assailants that violently disrupted a forum where Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was speaking at.

A teary Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) youth chief Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman told reporters after the incident that the DAP worker, by the name of Daniel, did his duty as a security worker by taking a beating to protect a group of Malays from getting hurt.

“You say there is racism but ” Syed Saddiq said before he paused to control his emotion. “This guy, he is from DAP... when the incident happened he didn’t run backwards. Instead he went in (and used his body) to protect those who were attacked”.

DAP later confirmed that the worker involved was Daniel Low.

A picture provided by the party showed that Low had sustained a bruise on his forehead after assailants hit him with a chair.

Violence erupted at the “Nothing to Hide 2.0” forum here earlier as assailants set off flares and attacked some of the forum participants with chairs in what appeared to be an attempt to sabotage the event.

Daniel Low sustained facial injuries in his attempt to protect attendees from assailants. — Photo courtesy of DAP

The assailants, mostly youths in their 20s who attended the forum pretending to be members of Dr Mahathir’s party, were seen throwing bottles and shoes at the audience and towards Dr Mahathir, just as the former prime minister was taking questions from the audience.

A mass brawl was sparked off after security members were forced to retaliate.

Syed Saddiq said his party was extremely upset as the event was meant to encourage dialogue to allow the PPBM chairman to come clean on any thorny issues.

“We from Bersatu are extremely upset because at the initial stage, there was no problem at all and we rather use debate and not gangsterism to promote any ideas and we saw that there can be dialogue after nothing transpired for the first one and a half hours,” he said.

“But I think after what happened...I pray that those responsible would repent and for the police to take stern action”.