Is Trouble Looming In DAP?

Just as Mahathir is struggling to empower Dato Seri Mukhriz, Kit Siang has seen signs that Guan Eng will always play second fiddle to Gobind.

Raghavan Nair

Abiding instruction by the Registrar of Society, the Democratic Action Party (DAP) finally held their re-elections on 12 November 2017 after tremendous hue and cry. Although certain quarters are celebrating that 90 percent of its Central Executive Committee (CEC) have been retained, and hence the results of the null-and-void election did not change much, dissecting the election results reveals much more than what is being said.

Glaringly, the father of DAP, Lim Kit Siang defeated Gobind Singh Deo by only a single vote to top the elections while his son, Lim Guan Eng fell behind Gobind. Till date, Gobind has never publicly accepted Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad into the Opposition pack while the Lims are pro-Mahathir. In fact, Gobind has allegedly told many of his friends that he can never forgive Mahathir for the injustice and abuse his late father, Karpal Singh had to endure courtesy of Mahathir. Bickering within the party suggests that many members are not happy the Lims are holding hands with Mahathir. While Gobind’s victory must be sending shivers down Kit Siang’s spine, even the late-Karpal obtained 43 votes in the re-election. Delegates who voted obviously want to see Gobind at the helm and put an end to the Lim Dynasty.

The turnout for the re-election is also appalling. Only 54% of delegates turned up to vote. Although numerous unhappy members are crying foul that they did not receive notice of the re-elections, either way this spells trouble. Independent auditor, Grant Thornton said that 2514 notices for the re-election were sent out. With such a low turnout, did almost half the delegates boycott the elections due to dissatisfaction with the way the party is bring run? Conversely, if its true that so many members did not receive the notification, was this deliberately done? In a few months the General Election will be held. DAP leaders would be pleading with people to turn up and vote. How can one take this plea seriously when their own members did not turn up to vote for their own leaders?

We often hear DAP leaders screaming out loud that their party is a multi-racial organization. They went as far as fielding a young Malay lady in the Teluk Intan by-election to prove a point. However, the CEC election results speak otherwise. Only two Indians, one Sikh, and one Malay gentleman got voted into the top-20 CEC members. The delegates ballot papers certainly showed that DAP is indeed a party dominated by a single-ethnic group. If UMNO decides one day to appoint one Chinese member and a couple of Indians, would they also be deemed a multi-racial party then?

Time and again the CEC election results show us if DAP is really a multi-racial organization. While the Malays have the likes of PKR and Parti Pribumi that largely represent them, where does the Indian man lie in the Opposition pack? The one champion of Indian rights who is constantly bombarding MIC, Prof Dr. Ramasamy, got booted out of the CEC. Are members of DAP unhappy that someone within is trying to fight for the Indians?

The Lim dynasty is definitely rocking. Just as Mahathir is struggling to empower Dato Seri Mukhriz, Kit Siang has seen signs that Guan Eng will always play second fiddle to Gobind. Just as Mahathir has realised that ousting Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak is not as easy as Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Kit Siang is realizing too that Gobind is not Tan Seng Giaw.