How DAP succeeded despite Kit Siang’s strongman ways

Those who disagree are put in cold storage or leave, but Kit Siang and DAP were good at marketing and branding and won public support by bad-mouthing Barisan, says Yap Pian Hon.

DAP lost many talented members but built up public support through marketing, says veteran politician Yap Pian Hon.

PETALING JAYA: Lim Kit Siang’s strongman leadership has cost the DAP many talented members, but he succeeded in building public support through marketing and branding, observes veteran politician Yap Pian Hon.

He noted that Kit Siang continued to maintain very strong control over DAP, so much so that members would be sidelined if they went against him or his son, party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.

Yap Pian Hon

“Many left the party (through the years because they could not get along with Kit Siang,” Yap said. “Until today, if you look at DAP, you would notice that anyone who dared to defy Kit Siang or Guan Eng, he or she would become politically irrelevant in the party.”

If a party member was not aligned with the leaders, he or she would be cut off. “This is not only happening in DAP, but in all the other parties. DAP is not spared from problems of factions,” he said.

Yap himself was to suffer a falling-out with Kit Siang in the early 1970s after he had sought the help of Selangor menteri besar Harun Idris to solve a problem of constituents in Puchong.

The long list of those who left DAP

When he left the party, there was a long list of others who also left – about 50 of them, all were either assemblymen or MPs, he said.

“The Setapak MP then, Loh Poh Khan, was the first to go, others in stages…Richard Ho, Yeap Ghim Guan, Goh Hock Guan and several others – all of whom could not agree with Kit Siang and how he did things in the party,” Yap told FMT in an interview.

Yap joined DAP in 1968 in Serdang and was elected assemblyman. He left to be an independent assemblyman and was persuaded to join MCA, and served four more terms as assemblyman and three as MP.

“A lot of the members were not happy then, and many are still unhappy today. Why is it that Kit Siang, who is no longer in the leadership, is acting as though he is still DAP’s de facto leader? He is only the advisor, and there is no way that he can say things on behalf of the party,” said Yap.

Those who defied Kit Siang would mostly be cold-storaged, such as former Johore DAP leader and Skudai state assemblyman Dr Boo Cheng Hau, or Selangor state executive councillor Teng Chang Khim, he said.

Boo was dropped from the 14th general election slate after he refused to obey instructions to contest in Labis. “How can you ask him to suddenly shift to Labis when he has always been in Skudai. Johor DAP is so strong today because of Boo,” said Yap.

Talented members leave, but public support grows

However, although DAP lost many talented members to MCA and Gerakan, Kit Siang has managed to build the party based on public support. “One thing DAP is good at, that is marketing and branding the party. That is how they have managed to win over the hearts of the Chinese in the last few general elections,” he said.

“But in essence, DAP does not have many members or new recruits, they are lacking in talented and capable members,” he said.

He said recent disputes such as the unhappiness of DAP Youth over Cabinet appointments, showed there was disunity in DAP. “If you don’t belong to the Kit Siang and Guan Eng camp, you are out,” he said.

He said the DAP today was no longer like before, when voters cast their ballots for candidates they knew and who were able to help solve their problems.

Nowadays, people voted based on the party’s “packaging”, including the party’s logo, and because DAP had painted a bad image of Barisan Nasional and its component parties.

“Today, people don’t care who the DAP are, they would vote by just recognising the logo.” -FMT