The DAP’s Malay dilemma

What do we do now? 

- Bill McKay (The Candidate)

Are people who say that the DAP needs to look after its “Chinese” base either half-witted or have malignant intentions as DAP senator and strategist Liew Chin Tong claims? 

For instance, if I say, that since we have a Malay uber alles government, a frenemy like the old maverick whose birthday pronouncement included the desire to continue playing the Chinese/Malay economic canard, Anwar Ibrahim the Pakatan Harapan leader who says “don’t spook the Malays” and a brief period of Harapan rule, where the DAP bent over backwards not to rile up the majority, am I half-witted or have malignant intentions when I say that, in this environment, the DAP should be concerned about looking after the interests of its Chinese base?

What I would like Liew (above) to answer, is what exactly does the “Chinese” base wants? I am curious because I know what the Umno and PAS base want because political operatives from both parties make it abundantly clear. The fact that Bersatu and PKR, both of which attempt to court the Malay base, indulge in the same kind of racial politics as Umno and PAS, means that both understand what is important to the “Malay” base.

So, what is important to the Chinese base? If Liew could articulate what is important to the base, then maybe we could see if there is a difference between what a Malay base wants and what an Indian base wants – but more importantly, is there anything in what the Chinese base wants that contradicts whatever “multiracial” principles that the DAP claims is the basis of its party's ethos?

Keep in mind what the pro-Anwar pressure group claimed: “As things are today, there is a lot of misunderstandings (happening) from the Malay community towards non-Malays, especially when it comes to DAP.”

What in Liew’s opinion are those misunderstandings? That is, if the DAP thinks that there are “misunderstandings” at all. What exactly is it about the DAP that causes the sensitivities of the majority to be offended when the DAP has done everything when in power to be subservient to Malay interests?

During its brief stint in power, what rational people remember of the DAP are the numerous times it let down the base to support the political machinations of Malay power structures – weak Malay power structures, I might add – to the detriment of the base. In fact, non-Malays were lectured by the DAP on the virtue of pragmatism and every time the DAP folded, the “base” was told to suck it up.

And really, besides a few “Indian” political operatives and of course the mercurial Ronnie Liu (above), nobody was really speaking truth to the naked emperor. And the base which I suppose means the Chinese majority which voted Harapan/DAP, were left out in the cold.

We were witness to arrogant displays of power, especially to the MCA bending over backwards when the old maverick was baiting the DAP and attempting to curry favour with toxic individuals like the mufti of Perlis.

When someone like me questioned why the DAP was reaching out to the mufti of Perlis, I got a lecture from the DAP about how we need to reach out in this New Malaysia. Meanwhile, Liew says that the DAP needs to do everything to help young Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman to retain his seat, even though this was the young upstart who declared open season on the DAP, when party stalwarts dared criticise then prime minister and Bersatu Big Cheese, Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Liew says that the DAP needs to expand the base. Fair enough, but what exactly has the DAP done to expand the base? After decades of being in the opposition and then gaining power in certain states, how did the DAP expand its base? The “Bangsa Malaysia” kool-aid was meant for the non-Malays because the majority Malay community never took a gulp.

From gathering in mosques and propping up religious operatives like Mujahid Yusof Rawa, the DAP has exhausted resources and political capital by attempting to court the Malay vote in the most craven of ways.

Non-Malay political parties have this delusion that they are independent operators. They are not. They are in reality proxies for Malay power structures, with varying degrees of public and private influence within Malay hegemons. To believe otherwise, would be delusional. 

While it is easy to paint the MCA as running dogs of Umno, the same could be said of the DAP, who have had to bend over backwards to accommodate the return of Mahathir into the opposition ranks.

Official narratives of the state through their racial and religious bureaus paint the community as avaricious, opportunists waiting to usurp Malay power and distort Malay culture. Religious preachers talk of how “rude” the Chinese community is and point to internecine conflicts which either reinforce the stereotype that the community cannibalises itself for Malay power or points to the uncouth and insolent behaviour of the community when it comes to politics.

What destroyed the MCA is not the propaganda of the DAP but the acceptance by a large voting demographic of the Chinese community that no representation in the government is better than MCA representation. How did the MCA fail them? When a partisan says that the DAP is morphing into the MCA, what does Liew think this means?

The DAP has demonstrated that in its desperation to court the Malay vote and to appear acceptable to the majority non-urban Malay community, it would grasp at anything or anyone to burnish its Malay bona fides. This is where the trouble starts.

The DAP strategist said: "The DAP must do everything it can to guard against those who try to stir up racial division." I wonder if he has said this to the old maverick?

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S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. A retired barrister-at-law, he is one of the founding members of Persatuan Patriot Kebangsaan. - Mkini