DAP leadership must share power

What the DAP leadership should do is to set up a Malay Matters Bureau and an Indian Issues Bureau

COMMENT

The results at the recent DAP party polls held in Penang on Dec 15 wherein 20 Central Executive Committee (CEC) members were elected was a great shock and disappointment for this columnist who had thought that at least one or two Malay candidates would be voted in.

It is obvious that the delegates did not know how to apply what is to be termed as ‘cunning voting’.

This is how it works. This columnist was a delegate who had voted at the DAP Women’s Congress held in KL on Dec 9. There were 27 candidates contesting for 15 posts in the DAP National Women’s Committee. Out of the 27, five were Indians and the rest were Chinese. This columnist voted for all the five Indians. This is only logical math.

Glad to say that out of the five Indians, two of them were voted in to the 15-member committee. They are Mary Josephine Prittam Singh who is now the deputy chairperson and Kamache A/P Doray Rajoo who has been chosen as the assistant secretary.

This columnist did not attend the DAP party polls in Penang.

And sad to say the delegates in Penang were not politically savvy. In fact, this columnist would like to label the situation in Penang as ‘delegates malfunction’.

The mindset of the delegates who had voted in Penang can be attributed to the fact that the Malay candidates were not well-known on the ceramah circuit. Be that as it may, they should have just been voted in to the 20-member CEC even if no one knows them from Adam.

Anyway that is all in the past. No use crying over spilt milk. DAP must now look ahead and find ways and means to improve the situation.

Do more for non-Chinese

What the DAP leadership should do is to set up a Malay Matters Bureau and an Indian Issues Bureau. These said bureaus are to be affiliated to the CEC.

The Malay and Indian leaders of these bureaus are to look into ways of helping their respective communities by going on the ground and meeting the people.

Although the setting-up of these bureaus look like race-based politics, this is the current reality.

With the existence of these bureaus, the Malay and Indian public can bring up the relevant issues to their respective leaders. The existence of these bureaus should then be widely publicised.

With the setting up of the Malay and Indian Bureaus, DAP will be more inclusive. DAP leaders must share power evenly with all the other races. Only then can it truly shed its ‘Chinese chauvinist’ label given by the evil media and the enemy camp.

There is no way DAP can seem inclusive if the Malays remain at the fringe.

Meanwhile, the Malays in DAP must also strive to project themselves by being active on the ceramah circuit. It is useless to just sit down and keep quiet. They must make the rounds and not just sit in the office.

In addition to the above, it is good if one Malay and one Indian is given a prestigious parliament seat to contest. DAP cannot continue to talk about a ‘Malaysian Malaysia’ if the Malays and Indians feel left out.

Everyone including the Orang Asal must have a sense of belonging in the party. The Orang Asal too must be given a popular parliament or state seat to contest. DAP leaders must break the race barrier and the best time to do this is none other than at the coming 13th general election.

Multi-racial party

One must also remember that Gerakan who has also proclaimed itself as a multi-racial party is also Chinese-based. How many Malay or Indian or Orang Asal MPs or state assemblymen has Gerakan produced?

At the end of the day it can be seen that although BN leaders attack DAP’s multi-racial concept, BN too has failed to be multi-racial as BN is only a coalition of race-based parties.

If they want to be truly multi-racial in the true sense, spirit and essence of the word, all the race-based parties must be dissolved and they should just come under one banner, the BN banner that is. BN leaders thus should stop being hypocrites.

What they are doing now is looking at the speck in other people’s eyes and not seeing the plank in their own.

This simply means that the only successful multi-racial party so far is none other than PKR.

The thing about Malaysian politics is that the Independence was carved through the negotiating efforts of race-based parties. Therefore race is tied to politics. And that is why BN leaders give different messages to different audiences during their political ceramahs.

We must therefore now usher in New Politics for a New Malaysia. We must not say: ‘We are not ready’. We must be ready and now is the time to do it or we will be left far behind.

Indonesia’s economic growth is at 6.4% while ours is still below 6%. Why must we be lagging behind when our nation has so much natural resources and has much human potential?

We must thus get rid of the old methods which do not work anymore and cross over to the new frontier at this coming 13th general election.

Selena Tay is a FMT columnist.