Tony Pua dispenses the Kool-Aid

"We need to prove to them that Pakatan Harapan is multiracial, a party that is clean and not corrupt compared to Malay-based nationalist parties like Umno and Bersatu, that we can do better than corrupt people like BN, Umno and Bersatu.”

- Tony Pua

Some folks think that what Tony Pua said was some sort of truth-telling but he should not have said it at this crucial juncture. It is not.

What the former Damansara MP said at that fundraiser is exactly the kind of pap that some supporters want to hear but which does not reflect reality. And more importantly, it serves no strategic purpose at all, which is disappointing since in the political game, strategy trumps policy.

The reality is that Pakatan Harapan and the DAP hooked up with Bersatu when it was led by the architect of the racial and religious malfeasances in this country, hooked up with PAS when it was led by the benign Tok Guru (the late Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat) and no doubt would have hooked up with Umno sooner or later.

As DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke rightly put it, the political landscape is changing and who knows what permutations elections could bring forth.

People forget that, unlike Anwar Ibrahim who spent decades building consensus with disparate allies, when Dr Mahathir Mohamad hooked up with Harapan and the DAP, it was a prolonged one-night political stand.

Indeed, DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang said Bersatu was needed to court the Malay heartland vote. And it was not as if Mahathir and his minions in the newly formed Bersatu had repented of their corrupt ways, that the DAP especially used to hammer home back in the day when Mahathir was prime minister.

And do not get teary-eyed about how different PAS was under Nik Aziz. Other memories may be short but PAS always pushed the Islamic agenda, but Nik Aziz understood the need for PAS to gain mainstream acceptance which was what its partnership with Harapan and the DAP did.

The late Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat

So, I guess for an educated bloke like Pua, Malay-based nationalist parties are only clean when they embrace the DAP.

This is exactly the kind of horse manure that right-wing propagandists use when they attack Harapan and Anwar. This is the Kool-Aid which the base laps up but does not stand up to intellectual scrutiny or the scrutiny of religious and racial propagandists.

Pua said: "We have nothing wrong with religiously pious politicians. There is nothing wrong with that. But we fear that they abuse religion for political and personal gains.”

This is exactly how the trouble started when it comes to the religious discourse in this country. The DAP was supposed to be the secular component of Harapan, yet the DAP stuck their snouts into the religious provinces of the majority hoping to curry favour with the majority.

Keep in mind under Harapan the first time around, the religious bureaucracy was funded up the wazoo, Mujahid Yusof Rawa turned into a pious Muslim from a progressive one, Harapan attacked Maryam Lee for her unveiling book, attacked LGBT activists, attacked women’s rights group and generally had a religious agenda which mirrored PAS’ in many ways. Keep in mind, the DAP did nothing to stop this.

This is why I have always maintained that the DAP, and indeed all non-Malay political operatives, should be strictly secular in terms of how they present their ideas and agendas. They should not give in to the temptation of thinking that they could go the easy route and manipulate religious sentiment for populist appeal.

‘Working relationships’

So, I guess Pua is right when he says that the DAP has nothing against religious pious politicians because they certainly did bupkis when the religious political operatives from their side were running riot when they were in power and they certainly are not doing anything now.

And of course, Umno and DAP have had working relationships, even when they were not sharing the same political bed.

Ambassador to the United States Nazri Abdul Aziz said it best when he got into a spat with Gerakan in 2018: “I said the voice of the Chinese after the 2013 general election is DAP. Is that wrong? I am friends with DAP because I respect democracy.

“I want to carry out tourism work in Seremban and Penang. These are DAP areas. I cannot leave them aside.”

The problem has always been that political operatives from the DAP have this holier-than-thou attitude which is completely detached from reality.

Claiming on one hand that corrupt race-based parties are anathema to Harapan and on the other working with them has created a dissonance in the base which in turn manifest in the kind of toxic behaviour Harapan supporters engage in online.

This is why some people have an animus against the DAP. They say manure like not working with race-based parties but in reality, have always worked in some way or another with them.

Loke said: “The speech, which is an attack on the coalition government’s main coalition partner, is uncalled for.

“Any provocative statement against coalition partners is not in line with the stance and direction of the party.”

And this is another problem with what Pua said. It makes Loke sound like a running dog for Umno, which of course, is how the DAP characterised the MCA for decades.

Instead of demonising the MCA and learning from their mistakes, what the DAP is attempting to do is play both sides. People like Pua want to continue dispensing the Kool-Aid aid but also use Umno to further the political fortunes of Anwar and themselves.

Pua is no truth teller, but I am pretty sure he is smart enough to know that the base can’t handle the truth. - Mkini

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S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.