Will DAP become another MCA?

For me, a DAP supporter (though not a member), two troubling questions have kept popping up about my favoured political party. But before I delve into those two vexing queries, let me explain why I have for years supported and today am still supporting the DAP, considering I came from a family in Ayer Itam who originally supported MCA and then (from 1969 until 2004) supported Lim Chong Eu's (not Lim KY's or Koh TK's) Gerakan.

For an Ayer Itam Chinese family, as for many Penang Chinese and Indian families, we support DAP because it has been the voice of those who saw/see themselves as the marginalized, disenfranchised, and (thus) aggrieved.

Yes, some Chinese in Malaysia have become extremely rich under the Perikatan-BN government, while many (being typical overseas Chinese) just got on with their livelihood and lives, even comfortably, though quite a few (the unseen) scrapped by day after day.

The general fact is that there's no chronic poverty for the Chinese in Malaya (I'm going to restrict my comments to the Peninsula); please read my qualification in the word 'general' which means there have been a few cases of utter poverty as in the case of 2 fallen by the wayside but we cannot deny these were the exceptions.

Chinese slums in Penang
though the residents don't starve

On my assertion that in general there is no chronic poverty in Malaysia (or at least Peninsula Malaysia) I have no doubt some Indians would disagree most vociferously. I accept their arguments, though I have attempted to trace the cause behind the rather stark difference in the fate of Chinese and Indian Malaysians in general, in an earlier post Marginalization of Indians - the true story.

When I wrote that post, I believe I was in many ways influenced by an essay I read as an HSC student, one written by (I think, 'twas years ago) Dr Ramakrishnan on the difference between Chinese and Indian attitudes, in which he epitomised the former as adhering to the Confucian advice of 'revering the gods but keeping them at a distance' while he lamented that in every aspects of an Indian life, religion (and its sanctified caste system) was deeply entrenched, and full of obstructing 'sacred cows'.

Anyway, overseas Chinese have been required by survival to be pragmatic. In fact pragmatism would by necessity have to be a fundamental overseas Chinese doctrine.

Thus some Chinese (and indeed some Indians) seeing the DAP as the voice of the marginalized, disenfranchised and aggrieved, while at the same time wishing to remain pragmatic, came up with what has jokingly been referred to as the 'Penang Strategy', that of electing and sending DAP MPs to Parliament to 'make mucho noise' for their rights on education and associated issues such as schools, scholarships, recognition of degrees, etc, while electing BN ADUNs wakakaka for Penang's economic and infrastructural development.

In other words, continue with the daily necessity of '3 bowls of rice' while hoping for the best possible outcome in educational opportunities, for as I have so often written, education has been a central pillar of Chinese culture for thousands of years.

Hmmm, I wonder where in Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs would the Chinese obsession for good standard and higher education be placed, as opposed to sex addiction, wakakaka.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Thus until the 2008 political tsunami, just as an example, courageous Khalsa warrior, Bhai Karpal Singh (more popularly known as the Lion of Gelugor or in earlier times, the Tiger of Jelutong) and equally courageous Uncle Lim would be sent off to Parliament to raise hell over rights and governance issues because MCA, MIC and Gerakan parliamentarians would be obsequiously dumb, while despised Koh Tsu Koon continued to be elected as an ADUN in the expectation of him becoming Penang's CM, at least in name, for Penang's domestic developments.

Some UMNO hotheads in Penang had from time to time demanded the CM post for an UMNO man because it was the BN party with the most number of ADUNs in Penang (but only because it had cleverly 'divided & conquered' MCA and Gerakan). But Putrajaya (and before that, KL) knew the appointment of an UMNO man as CM would undoubtedly alienate the Chinese voters as well as MCA and Gerakan in Penang to an extent the two Chinese based parties - and let's not pretend Gerakan is not 99.9% Chinese - might (a loud UMNO gasp here) combine to outnumber UMNO ADUNs just to ensure a Chinese is CM Penang.

A Chinese being CM Penang has never been an issue for UMNO but a combined MCA-Gerakan would be disastrous for its deeper strategy of keeping the two BN Chinese based parties divided and enervated, so as to continue being meek and compliant subordinates.

Yes, UMNO don't fancy a MCA that's too strong, arrogant or/and defiant as it saw in Lim Chong Eu (when he was MCA president), Lee San Choon, Lee Kim Sai, Tan Koon Swan and Ong Tee Keat (the last may be embraced by a desperate Najib for GE-13, only because of his personal popularity in Pandan).

The preferred type of Chinese partner UMNO love are people like Koh Tsu Koon and Liow 'my beloved PM' Tiong LIE, wakakaka.

There was already an unwelcome precedent in Chinese political parties and NGOs converging in political thoughts and meeting at the Hainanese Association Building just beside the Thean Hou Temple in KL on 11 October 1987.

Thean Hou Temple seen by Mahathir as Shaolin? wakakaka

The meeting was organized by Dong Jiao Zong (the association of Chinese school teachers and trustees) to protest against a policy of UMNO Education Minister, a man by the name of Anwar Ibrahim wakakaka, for what they perceived as a surreptitious move to undermine vernacular education in his ministry's move to send about 100 non-Chinese educated principals to Chinese vernacular schools.

As mentioned, because education has always been a central pillar of Chinese culture, all Chinese based parties in Malaysia then, namely, MCA and Gerakan and other Chinese based parties (SUPP?), and those dependent on Chinese support, DAP, had no choice but to participate in the Dong Jiao Zong organized meeting if they wished to survive politically. All in all, the attendance at that gathering was 2000 strong.

Action saw Newtonian's reaction, with a young Najib as UMNO Youth Chief's voicing his jaguh-ness to bathe his keris with Chinese blood becoming today's political legend, much as he may wish to forget about it.

KTK thinking BIG, bigger than UMNO
Hisham looking on in either admiration or envy
wakakaka

BN was by then caught in its own acrimonious vortex, with UMNO condemning MCA (though I believe, not Gerakan) and asking for the resignation of MCA deputy president, Lee Kim Sai, while the Chinese side called for Anwar Ibrahim's resignation.

Mahathir launched Ops Lalang against what he described as a Shaolin-like Chinese rebellion*, an ISA draconian devious dragnet which today is blamed on him and Najib, the latter for his blood bathing keris theatrical antic, but very few Pakatan Chinese supporters remember or want to remember it was Anwar Ibrahim who as Education Minister started that near-May 13-like dispute.

* He said, words to the effect, 'we know what happened historically when Chinese gathered together at a Chinese temple to protest against government policies'.

Shaolin Temple in China
equally controversial but less ostentatious
than KL's Thean Hou Temple

Wikipedia states: Operation Lalang resulted in the arrest of 106 people under the Internal Security Act. Among the more prominent detainees were opposition leader and DAP Secretary-General Lim Kit Siang, ALIRAN President Chandra Muzaffar, DAP Deputy Chairman Karpal Singh, MCA Vice President and Perak Chief Chan Kit Chee, PAS Youth Chief Halim Arshat, UMNO MP for Pasir Mas Ibrahim Ali, and UMNO Youth Education Chairman Mohamed Fahmi Ibrahim. Other prominent non-political detainees included Dong Jiao Zhong (Chinese Education Associations) Chairman Lim Fong Seng, Publicity Chief of the Civil Rights Committee Kua Kia Soong, and WAO member Irene.

Besides that, there was also another detainee called Hilmy Noor, a Malay Christian, who was accused for "disrupting the Malay culture by being a Christian" ....

The detainees were kept at the usual place used for ISA detainees, at Kamunting Detention Centre.

Although most of the detainees were released either conditionally or unconditionally, 40 were issued detention order of two years. Included were Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh plus five other party colleagues, a number of PAS members and many social activists.

A categorization of the initially named detainees, numbering 97, gives the following breakdown: political parties: 37; social movements: 23; individuals: 37.

Apart from above, there were two other losers, namely, (a) The Star newspaper which was banned for several months and which lost its once-independent news coverage when it was permitted to re-publish, and (b) Lee Kim Sai, the MCA deputy president who had his datukship withdrawn by the Selangor (former late) Sultan on the instigation of Najib and his UMNO Youth because of nasty exchanges of words with UMNO Youth.

Lee Kim Sai

At last I come to the two vexing questions on a future DAP which trouble me somewhat, namely:

(a) Will DAP become another MCA?

(b) How will DAP deal with its Pakatan ally, an increasingly arrogant and hudud-hungry and hudud-impatient PAS?

Let's deal with the first part of the first question by asking some of my own questions.

When we ask will DAP become another MCA, would we be assuming that DAP will be in government, of course not by itself, wakakaka! This in turn could mean one of the following:

(a) Pakatan assumes majority rule after GE-13 and remains intact in its original form of coalition (in Peninsula, PKR, PAS, DAP - I am not sure of the status of PSM in the coalition),

(b) 'Malay unity' coalition kicks in, especially in a hung parliament, and form the new government with an offer to DAP to join the new coalition to look after Chinese and Indian affairs, and

(c) BN continues majority rule after GE-13, but with a demolished or near-demolished MCA and MIC, invites DAP to join the new BN government, purportedly a la Tun Razak's concept of 'national unity' to be the voice for Chinese and Indian affairs, but in reality, more to destabilise the cohesion of a post GE-13 Pakatan so as to destroy it as a future formidable opposition.

The second part of the first question would invite another series of my own questions, on what sort of MCA that DAP is feared of becoming, namely:

(i) the Lim Chong Eu type of MCA which demanded to be an equal partner to UMNO, admittedly unsuccessfully because of MCA internal opposition by pro UMNO faction led by Tan Siew Sin, or

Lim Chong Eu

(ii) the Lee San Choon type of MCA which showed two-fingers to an UMNO but nonetheless where Lee had to leave because UMNO couldn't accept him as a workable partner, or

(iii) the Tan Siew Sin type of MCA which was friendly to and liked (or at least tolerated) by UMNO, but disliked by the Chinese, or

(iv) the Tan Koon Swan type of MCA which was quite aloof and somewhat arrogant to, and thus disliked by UMNO, though quite popular with the Chinese, or

(v) the Ling Liong Sik type of MCA which had a pally buddy but proper subordinate type of relationship with Mahathir's UMNO, not unlike Tan Siew Sin's MCA though less respected, or

(vi) the Lee Kim Sai type of MCA which was very much disliked by UMNO for its in-your-face abrasiveness, highlighted by (1) Lee's call for abolition of bumiputera privileges (1986), (2) his major role (as a BN leader) in the Chinese school controversy (1987) which saw him leave for Australia on 'long leave' to avoid arrest in the Ops Lalang crackdown and (3) his losing his datukship for calling the Malays pendatangs (wakakaka) in his 1987 fiery exchanges with UMNO Youth.

(vii) the (future if MCA is not destroyed by then) Liow 'my beloved PM' Tiong LIE type of MCA which has been ........ (I cringe in embarrassment to describe its likely sucking servile subordinate ........ 'nuff said)?

Answering (a) of first part, a new Pakatan government is likely to have a reasonably strong and assertive DAP component, with its greatest challenge in the new Pakatan government coming from PAS and its undoubted wish to hudud-ize the Malaysian legal system.

Also see my previous post PAS - from Progressive to Pythonic, wakakaka.

wakakaka but matey, it'll swallow you up

Thus the question will DAP become another MCA appropriately queries its response and actions towards PAS Islamization intent, to wit, will DAP be like a mute and lame MCA which remained passive towards UMNO's Islamization programs? Admittedly though, PAS Islamization programs will be far more challenging, wakakaka.

Actually I have leap-frogged on to the second of the vexing questions, namely, 'How will DAP deal with its Pakatan ally, an increasingly arrogant, hudud-hungry and hudud-impatient PAS?'Perhaps it's best if we leave this aside for a while and deal with it as part of the 2nd question later.

Obviously, in a new Pakatan government where the DAP is likely to have a reasonably strong and assertive presence, I doubt it will be like MCA ... unless you want it to be the Lee Kim Sai abrasively confrontational type of MCA wakakaka.

The problem for MCA vis-a-vis its UMNO Tai-Koe has been its relative lack of power in Perikatan-BN, aggravated by its business-dominated desire to continue a cosy profitable relationship in the UMNO-led government.

But as they say, power corrupts, while absolute power corrupts UMNO absolutely, as had happened to a once much loved Gerakan Party, originally founded by giants like Professor Syed Hussain Alatas, Dr. David Tan Chee Khoon, Dr. J.B.A. Peter, Dr. Lim Chong Eu, Professor Wang Gungwu Mr. V. Veerapan.

jubilant Prof Syed Hassain and Lim Chong Eu
following Gerakan 1969 landslide win in Penang

I suspect (though of course I could be wrong) that Gerakan lost its original character and oomph when it was joined by MCA rejects like Lim Keng Yaik etc, so a DAP in federal government has more of itself to fear than a hudud-bent PAS.

So the question will DAP go the way of MCA (and which MCA type) can only be answered by further theoretical questions like: will its politicians have the same business-minded proclivities of MCA's politicians and MCA's lack of power in BN?

Besides, in reality the DAP of yesterday as is more so today cannot ever be a MCA because it has multi-ethnic members, much as UMNO has deliberately painted it (and still does) to be a Chinese-based party.

While it's undeniably true the DAP has more Chinese than other ethnic groups in its membership, the party was first headed by an Indian, Devan Nair, and its current chairperson is still another Indian, Karpal Singh.

Previous and current non-Chinese state chair of the party have been Karpal Singh (Penang), P Patto (previously Perak), Manoharan (previously Selangor), George John (previously Kedah), Ahmad Nor (previously Selangor), Ahmad Ton (previously Johor).

Then, it has more Indian MPs and ADUNs than the Indian MPs and ADUNs of all other political parties, including MIC, combined, wakakaka.

Today it strives to attract more Malays into its membership and has succeeded as never before. I'm confident we'll see a second or third or even more Malay MPs from DAP after GE-13.

DAP MP Bayan Baru 1990

So, how can such a multi-racial party be ever another MCA which is unabashedly a Chinese political party just as UMNO is a Malay political party, ..... though we must admit MCA once had a Malay as party president in Gaafar Baba during the Neo Yee Pan-Tan Koon Swan bitter feud, wakakaka.

If DAP joins a a Malay Unity government or as a new member of a BN government post GE-13, it will go the way of Gerakan Party where both its Indian and Malay members may see no further reason or cause to remain within its membership.

This would be its fate (the Gerakan fate) if it ever joins BN in the event BN (minus MCA and MIC or at best an insignificant MCA and MIC) continues to be the government.

By contrast, in Pakatan what can PKR offer which it hasn't already offered in far more superior standards, wakakaka? What can PAS offer differently other than Islamic politics which may not appeal to some Malays who prefer a DAP political environment?

So my best guess or expectation is that it won't become another MCA, apart from its fundamental multi-racial character preventing it from ever being a MCA.

Its two greatest danger to its future is a trap suffered by Gerakan, and its own self.

A fate waiting for DAP if it joins BN, wakakaka
KTK is a nice bloke but not a pollie
He should have stayed in academia

Aiyah, tired liao lah, wakakaka, so I'll continue the second question in my next post.