What Is Dap S Role In This New Era

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“I urge everyone to remain calm and keep cool heads.” – DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke on Najib Abdul Razak’s pardon
To be clear, I have no interest in the internal politicking of the DAP. There are very few personalities within the DAP who actually bring anything to the table.
Their power comes from the support of the non-Malay base which gives them a foothold in power and the perks that come with it but very little else.
The DAP’s head honcho Anthony Loke in schmooze mode with Nga Kor Ming said - “During this CNY dinner gathering, we reached an important consensus - to jointly build a DAP that is united, strong, stable, clean, and committed to meritocracy in the face of challenges brought by a new era and an evolving political landscape.”
ADSThe new era we are living through is where DAP political operatives and non-Malay businesses are attacked because of the perceived crossing of ketuanan (supremacy) red lines.
These attacks were emboldened by the rhetoric of partners in the Madani state and no doubt coddled by the pusillanimous attitude of the majority stakeholders.
Second fiddle
Of course, Umno/Perikatan Nasional defines this new era with the DAP having to play second fiddle to Malay uber alles (above all else) parties, which are playing an extremely dangerous religious and racial game.
At each turn, DAP partisans argued that the various permutations of these Malay uber alles parties were different - but the reality is, all that these Malay uber alles parties desired was dominance over the Malay polity, as measured by electoral power, and used DAP at one time or another to reverse their political fortunes.
Loke says the DAP speaks up through the proper channels. Mind you, “proper channels” in Malaysian parlance are private channels, and nobody can hold you accountable for what you said or claim to have said.
DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke (left) and vice-chairperson Nga Kor MingRemember when Ronnie Liu bid sayonara to the DAP, he made public statements which highlighted the similarity between the way how DAP operates now and how the MCA used to operate - “They may not know it (but) they are starting to say (things like), ‘we have to compromise’, ‘we have to look at the bigger picture’, ‘we’ll try to deal with the problem internally’.”
And what exactly has the DAP done for the meritocratic agenda of this country? Before the DAP tasted real political power, they were gung ho on the concept of meritocracy and their guns were trained on Umno.
Remember back in the day when DAP national chairperson Lim Guan Eng debated then MCA big cheese Chua Soi Lek, the former thundered - “I’ll tell you why MCA set up TAR College, it is because there is a quota for Chinese students to enter public universities, and therefore the need (for MCA) to compensate for it.”
DAP never gave MCA the benefit of this excuse, and neither should anyone who believes in any kind of institutional reform.
Honestly, even a convicted felon played a part in recognising TAR College - now a university - which earned the ire of the old maverick Dr Mahathir Mohamad - “If last time we could only get a government job by having a diploma from public universities, now we have to accept a diploma (certificate) from TARUC.
“This is all because of votes. All these have occurred because of the stupidity of the Malays.”
ADSWill DAP cave?
These days, the rakyat is left wondering if DAP will cave when it comes to important policy issues because, with the creation of this coalition government, all they seem interested in doing is justifying the policies of the government, even if it goes against their campaign manifesto or more damning, their so-called principles.
What is important for the non-Malay polity to understand, is that the MCA’s power-sharing model was a big failure in terms of acting as a moderating force for politics in this country although it did produce long-standing beneficial results for the non-Malay community.
This last bit is made worse by the reality that the DAP is attempting to emulate the BN-era power-sharing model, which a significant percentage of the Malay voting public has chosen to reject.
What hurts the DAP the most is the hypocrisy of cuddling up with Malay structures - donning the hijab, waxing eloquent about reading the Quran in Malay, and a host of other initiatives to reach out to the Malay community - and then having a base which wants a secular egalitarian government which the DAP plays to.
This is why PN uses this line of attack against the DAP because they understand Malay power structures in Madani will leave the DAP to fend for itself.
I would argue that Umno/PN’s propaganda that DAP is “anti-Malay” and “anti-Islam” was beneficial to the DAP because non-Malays flocked to their banner under the mistaken impression that secularism and egalitarianism were the bedrock on which DAP was founded on.
As a supposedly multiracial party, the DAP has now got to contend with the reality that the Indian community is now coming to the realisation (no matter how hard partisans attempt to push the Bangsa Malaysia Kool-aid) that the dialectic between the legacy parties revolves around the Malay/Chinese dialectic at the expense to genuine inclusive reform.
Want to know why someone like Umno Youth chief Dr Akmal Saleh takes potshots at every opportunity at the DAP?
Political operatives like him understand that it really does not matter what they do because the DAP support base will not punish the DAP, unlike the Malay majority polity who have demonstrated their willingness to shift their support to whatever reactionary Malay/Muslim party they think best serves their interests.
We are in a very dangerous period in Malaysian politics. I have no idea if the DAP can or even wants to maintain the secular democratic line. All I know is that this could be a golden era for the religious extremists and it remains to be seen the role DAP plays in this. - Mkini
S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

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