Apa DAP Mau?

My friend Dato Sri Ti Lian Ker, a former ADUN for Teruntum Kuantan, asked the rhetorical question, what does the DAP want?Apa DAP mau?

He is now MCA’s head of religious harmony or something- which I think is like putting a thoroughbred horse to pull a milk cart.  That is unfortunate but that’s Liow Tiong Lai’s idea of using talent.

Before that, he has appeared on Bernama TV and has recently written about the same thing. His uncharacteristic demonization and vilification of the DAP was given a wide berth.

But because I think Ti Lian Ker is a talented person, his thoughts and article deserves a reasoned riposte.

He says he supports Zaid Ibrahim’s taunt that DAP does not understand Malays. I regard Lian Ker’s support of Zaid’s taunt similar to placing a fish trap in between a gap. Acknowledged, but needing no immediate response.We dont want to be the unfortunate fish.

Zaid’s misgivings can be a subject of another article. 
Now, by stating what DAP stands for as I do now, is by no means insisting that DAP is a party free from blemishes. It has it own shortcomings and weaknesses. An image problem is one of them. It will continue to be vilified as a racist and chauvinist party.
And I personally suspect its idea of Malaysian Malaysia isn't understood fully by its grassroots supporters. 
Case in point: if DAP implores the Malay grassroots to accept and trust DAP Chinese leaders, they must also do the same by asking the Chinese grassroots to accept and trust deserving Malay leaders. Trust and acceptance require reciprocity.  There is still much schooling to be done on on its grassroots members and supporters.  
But I cant castigate MCA and at the same time, list the bad points on DAP. Like Karpal Singh said a long time ago, you cant be two extremes simultaneously. I am not writing a dos and donts essay. 

What DAP wants is not to be faulted for the wrongs others caused.

DAP is not responsible for MCA’s shortcomings and deficiencies, DAP is not responsible for MCA not being able to behave like how MCA should. 

How should MCA be? A truthful Chinese based party. Which is to behave like a reasonable Chinese allowed to be Chinese.

DAP is not responsible for MCA behaving like a country cousin.

DAP is not responsible for the diminution of trust experienced by the UMNO led government.  Certainly DAP should not be held accountable for a majority entity like UMNO representing its constituents like a minority. The language of UMNO, a majority, is that on a besieged minority. Its retorts and responses are those attributable to a confused creature.

What Ti Lian Ker has done is to virtually write off MCA, the party referred whimsically by the public, as the 7-eleven party. The MCA has 7 MPs and 11 ADUNs.

If he, an MCA leader says that 90% of the Chinese community supports DAP, then this means MCA and gerakan are both comatose now, and will be dead by the GE14.

I will also understand that he has to say what he said on behalf of himself and also on behalf of MCA.

The question Ti Lian Ker asked, is already wrong. He should have asked not apa DAP mau, but what DAP gives. This is the root cause of Ti Lian ker’s and others confusion. The DAP gives, not take.

I will try to answer that.

DAP gives hope for the creation of a good government based on the principle of rule of law. Which in practice simply means, DAP gives hope for a government that does not rule impulsively and does not run rough shod over its people. 

As for the Chinese, DAP gives hope for some form of comforting relief of their underlying fears.

The hope comes in a tangible form. In the form of a team of leaders comprising of different Malaysian races, determined, disciplined, able and dedicated to a political cause.

What do the Chinese today want?  Having mixed with them and doing some close observation, what they value most is fair dealing and fair treatment from a good government. 

Good Government. Fair Treatment. 

They accept this is a country dominated by Malays and Malays owning first right of claim because of their cultural and historical attachments to this land; they are willing to concede that.

They don’t need to be PM or DPM, but they want guarantees from a just and fair government to be able to make a living, accumulation of wealth protected by law, their children getting and able to get sound education, can exercise freedom of choice, given sufficient space to practise their culture, language. To be able to live and die peacefully.

People of reason can work out these things.

Let’s not dwell in the past because if I read Ti Lian Ker, he wished DAP is trapped in a time warp. The parties trapped in a business as usual setting are UMNO and BN parties.  DAP has moved beyond that.

He must have wished DAP remains belligerent and chauvinists and racist as others defined. DAP defines itself- not MCA or the other BN parties.

Well, DAP has adapted and in a Darwinian-esque way, accepts that if we don’t adapt we perish.

If we can reconstruct, DAP has never been against the spirit of NEP- the less fortunate deserved help. A sound social safety net will have to be in place to help the less fortunate, the sick, old and infirmed. There is no question about that.

The Malays because of colonialist design or because of some cultural reasons slacked behind, deserved some push. Once the idea of requiring handicap is accepted, the implementation must be seen just and fair and not taken as a wholesale license to bumiputra-nise anything in the way. That overzealousness has caused a lot of unhappiness not only among all races in Malaysia but also within the Malay community too.

I have my own interpretation of bumiputera- the bumis get left behind, the puteras- the elite, the selected few, the 5 percenter get ahead - far ahead. 

As I have said, in my opinion, the essence of NEP was not to create all Malays into millionaires. Let’s say it frankly. The dullards, the layabouts, loafers cannot expect to take the same positions as the industrious, the better educated, those who worked and studied harder and those who performed better.  If we do that, we have institutionalised disincentives.

The NEP encapsulates a challenge to restructure society so that everyone is placed in a social setting according to the work they put in, the efforts they make. It’s a merit based system. The low starters will be given the forms of push-ons and once they acquire the skills and talents, will have to compete on equal terms.

It wasn’t a scheme to award a sense of entitlement.

Let me further answer his big picture question by stating what DAP does is what the MCA failed to give to the Malaysian Chinese. Which is to be a truthful Chinese instead of Uncle Tom Chinese. Let me also say state that what the DAP `wants as regards the Chinese, is what UMNO does not allow the Chinese to be. Which is to be Chinese.

What are these? To be able to boldly, directly and sincerely what being Chinese in Malaysia means. MCA on the other hand behaves like a mendicant to UMNO, bowl in hand begging UMNO to allow the Chinese to be Chinese.  Hence the Chinese at large sees MCA, the party of  Mr Ti Lian Ker as an uncle tom Chinese party.

DAP does not want- it gives. It gives leadership to the Chinese. That means it is it ready to conduct itself boldly, directly and frankly. DAP offers the public and to the Chinese of course, leadership comprising of a team of individuals at the national and  state levels who are courageous to put out their necks, determined and willing to give fruition to  these hopes.

To be honest, what does it mean to be Chinese, I think only my Chinese comrades in DAP can better say it than I.

As a Malay looking from outside I think being Malaysian Chinese can be defined in terms of what they want. What they want most, is to be given fair treatment. That is basically what I think the Chinese want- just fair treatment. Moreover being practical, they must accept that they cant get all what they want.

Culturally to be able to preserve as much as possible their identity. Language through its vernacular schools, culture though their everyday practice and further refined also though schools and cultural organisations. Politically it means given fair treatment and legitimate representation. Individually as citizens enjoying fair dealings as the other Malaysian citizens.

The existence of vernacular schools is a complex issue which cannot be treated casually in this article. Perhaps sometime in the future I will be able to contribute some articles on this.

As to his examples of Ong Kian Meng and Ronnie Liew willing to wear baju Melayu, friendship with PAS, DAP’s position on Bahasa Malaysia, English and Mandarin, these are political tidbits deserving only passing comments.

But when Ti Lian ker asked ‘Why are 90% Chinese for DAP if they are not speaking politically racist language or false promises which they cannot deliver?’ that is something else.

Here is a leader of a purely Chinese based party actually accusing the Chinese of being inherently racists. I have answered above, why the Chinese like and prefer DAP over MCA. 

Its a choice of being truthful or being an Uncle Tom.