DAP dilemma: Vocal outside, meek inside like MCA?

Veteran politician Yan Pian Hon wonders if the silence of strong DAP personalities means Mahathir has clipped their wings to keep them down, and says Azmin Ali's appointment has left Lim Guan Eng as nothing more than a cashier.

Yap Pian Hon was a state assemblyman as a member of the DAP and later MP with MCA. (Wikipedia pic)

PETALING JAYA: An MCA veteran has warned the DAP that it risks becoming like MCA if it continues to be silent in power on issues that it was once passionate, and questioned whether they were now “too afraid” to raise such matters with the prime minister.

Yap Pian Hon, who served as a DAP assemblyman for one term and then as assemblyman and later MP for MCA, said DAP politicians who were once very critical of the former government had all fallen “silent” since their appointment as ministers or deputy ministers.

“By right, they should make use of the opportunity as ministers and deputy ministers to realise the ideas and issues they had fought for when they were opposition MPs.

“Back then, the issues that they raised were not entertained by the former administration. Isn’t this the day they have been waiting for, to be in government and, therefore, to be able to solve these issues?” he said.

“But it looks like they are beginning to lose focus on issues they were once passionate about. Or are they too afraid to raise it with the prime minister (Dr Mahathir Mohamad)?” he said in an interview with FMT.

Yap said he observed that DAP were treading a similar path as the MCA which had eventually lost focus and become irrelevant to the Chinese community.

He noted that the Unified Examination Certificate for independent Chinese schools had “all of a sudden” been questioned by the education minister on the grounds that it may threaten national unity.

Teo Nie Ching ‘seems to be in agreement with PM’

“What national unity are they talking about? Why isn’t the DAP deputy education minister (Teo Nie Ching), who had always fought for the recognition of UEC, coming forward to explain?”

The UEC is the school-leaving certificate of independent Chinese secondary schools. It is recognised by some local and overseas universities, and by certain state governments. However, it is not recognised as an entry qualification to Malaysia’s public universities and the public services.

Yap questioned Teo’s stand on Wawasan schools, first introduced in 1997 during Mahathir’s first stint as prime minister, where vernacular and national primary schools are placed under one roof to promote racial integration.

He said the Chinese community feared that Chinese might be taught only as a language subject in such schools.

“Teo had always argued in Parliament for the former administration to build more Chinese schools, but now she seems to be in agreement with the prime minister,” he said.

Yap also questioned whether the DAP (originally a splinter party of Singapore’s ruling People’s Action Party) retained the same ideology as the PAP. He said Singapore also had schools similar to the Vision School model, where Chinese is taught as one subject.

Will young leaders dare to speak against Mahathir?

Yap felt that Dr Mahathir’s appointment of several strong DAP personalities as ministers and deputy ministers was a way to keep them “silent”, preventing these leaders from speaking against him.

Among those he named were Gobind Singh Deo, Puchong MP, and M Kulasegaran (Ipoh Barat MP). “It seems as though these MPs were appointed to just keep them down. True that there are younger faces in the cabinet, but are these younger ones brave enough to criticise Mahathir’s actions?”

Yap said the appointment of Gombak MP Mohamed Azmin Ali as economic affairs minister had removed power from finance minister Lim Guan Eng (DAP secretary-general). Actually, he is just a bookkeeper (a cashier). He has no power as a finance minister,” Yap said.

Other MPs from DAP, such as Tony Pua (Damansara MP), formerly very critical of Mahathir, had been left out of the cabinet because “Mahathir knows Tony’s style”, Yap said.

As for other young MPs such as Yeo Bee Yin (who handles energy and the environment), you think she would speak against Mahathir? No, she would not,” he said. -FMT