‘There is a godfather in DAP but it’s not Karpal’

The dispute between Karpal Singh and Penang DCM P Ramasamy was an orchestrated ploy to rid DAP of Karpal who had “outlived his usefulness'.

PETALING JAYA: In just two weeks the DAP spat that was presumed dead and buried has resurrected to draw its proponents closer in dispute.

DAP national chairman, Karpal Singh, and Penang deputy chief minister, P Ramasamy, first lunged at each other’s throats after the former branded the latter a “warlord” prompting the Ramasamy to call him a “godfather”.

A three-man panel was formed to resolve the matter but they were unexpectedly relieved of this task when a Tamil daily confessed to misquoting Ramasamy on an election-related issue that sparked the fracas.

The spat had only just become old news when Ramasamy suddenly claimed last Thursday that his critics were plotting his downfall.

Karpal’s response was swift and stinging. He asked for Ramasamy’s resignation as payback for defying a party directive to refrain from making public statements on the party and openly attacking its leaders.

The Bukit Gelugor MP’s reaction is instinctive of a leader who has his party’s best interest at heart. But DAP’s critics say it is also hints at the very real existence of a godfather culture that has the party in its stranglehold.

According to them DAP’s polished exterior has as much to do with its intolerance for dissent as with its strict disciplinary code.

Among these critics is former DAP Petaling Jaya Utara MP and current Suaram director, Kua Kia Soong.

Although he declined to be interviewed, he requested that he be quoted from his book “Inside The DAP” published in 1995 but “still relevant to this day”.

‘Lim is considered indispensable’
Kua who left DAP in 1995 said that his five-year experience in the party revealed that none of the top DAP leaders including the then secretary-general (SG), Lim Kit Siang, had any inclination to have a social democratic party programme as an alternative to Barisan Nasional.

He was especially critical of Lim whom he portrayed as wielding absolute power over the party and its leaders.

“The SG (Lim) is considered “indispensable” by the party leaders,” Kua wrote.

“He has become synonymous with the DAP through concentration of power and authority in his position.

“The SG (Lim) didn’t seem to be able to settle simple questions of doubt cast in the media, such as the question of the ‘father and son’ syndrome in the DAP.”

Kua went on to call the “frozen oppressive atmosphere” of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) as “unbearable and demeaning” in the presence of the SG (Lim) and labelled his loyalists as “sycophants” and “tiresome emperor’s apologists”.

“Despite leadership problems there were no serious attempts by the SG (Lim) or CEC to address the problem of party renewal and preparation for leadership changeover or collective leadership,” he wrote.

“The important CEC posts of Discipline, Publicity and Organising Secretaries were filled by secretaries beholden to the SG (Lim).”

“No factional problems were decisively solved in a democratic way within the CEC, only the SG (Lim) held all the cards.

“The SG’s (Lim) inordinate power rests in his final say in the selection of candidates for the general elections.”

‘It’s not Karpal’

Lim has since moved up the ladder to the post of DAP advisor but former DAP Bukit Bintang MP, Wee Choo Keong, pointed out that he has taken his fist of power with him.

The current independent Wangsa Maju MP was ejected from DAP in 1998 for allegedly not showing “love and affection to the party leader”.

It is a charge that flabbergasts him to this day and which forms the basis of his insistence that the godfather culture is alive and well in his former party.

“There is only one godfather and it is not Karpal,” he told FMT.

“Any past or present DAP member will tell you that Kit Siang loves to hear that he is DAP and DAP is him.”

“How could I have been charged for not showing “love and affection” to a party leader?

“Even Chairman Mao didn’t demand this! Only one person matters in DAP and it is (Lim) Kit Siang.”

Wee predicted that come January 2012 Lim would begin speculating on the 13th general election dates, going month by month until the actual date is announced.

This, he said, is a subtle warning to candidate hopeful to listen unquestioningly to Lim’s directives.

“The candidate selection is done by a committee but everyone knows that Kit Siang has the last say.

“This is how he eliminates any room for dissent within the party whether it is public or not,” he said.

Karpal has ‘outlived his usefulness’
Wee also laughed off the dispute between Karpal and Ramasamy, and said that it was an orchestrated ploy to rid DAP of Karpal who had “outlived his usefulness”.

He explained that Karpal’s strong principals and tendency to shoot from the hip, especially with regards to the controversial hudud issue, has many a time put DAP in an awkward position.

“Ramasamy is being used by Kit Siang and (Lim) Guan Eng (current SG) to pin the godfather label onto Karpal in order to get rid of him,” he stated.

“I’m not at all surprised by the feud.”

“It has always been Kit Siang and Guan Eng’s way and it will continue to be so. Like Henry Ford said, you can have a car of any colour as long as it’s black,” added Wee.

Former DAP Johor chairperson and current Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) deputy national president, SK Soong, refrained from criticising DAP or its leaders but tellingly quipped that his party is devoid of “godfathers, warlords and hound dogs.”

He also blamed the media for thrusting greatness and hype upon politicians who are undeserving of such accolades as their sacrifices are incomparable to those of Myanmar’s opposition politician, Aung San Suu Kyi, or former South African president, Nelson Mandela.

“Certain leaders are treated as though they have left great political footprints when they are actually small fish,” he told FMT.

“They are all about cheap politics when they should be standing for their rights and principles. And compared to (former Singaporean prime minister) Lee Kuan Yew, they fall short intellectually.”

Lee was the former SG of Singapore’s People’s Action Party (PAP) of which DAP was an offshoot.

He and Lim (Kit Siang) held the post of SG within their parties for 38 years and 30 years respectively.