The message DAP sends if it drops Ramasamy

 

 This weekend, the DAP is finalising its list of candidates for the state polls in its bastion of Penang, and its strongholds of Selangor and Negeri Sembilan.

The major focus will be on whether the party will drop P Ramasamy, its three-term assemblyperson for Perai, and the deputy chief minister II occupying the slot reserved for Indians.

If Ramasamy (above) is dropped, interest will revolve on which Indian candidate will replace him in the DCM II position should the Pakatan Harapan-plus government be re-endorsed by voters.

It has been bruited that the replacement will either be Jagdeep Singh Deo or newcomer G Raju, someone with no experience of politics, a recruit from the field of property development.

Truth be told, there is no adequate replacement for Ramasamy from among the Indian fold within DAP.

Ramasamy, 74, wants the position for one more term before bowing out.

He should be retained because, besides his capability at fulfilling the demands of the Indian aspects of his portfolio, he has been the party’s intellectual in residence - a more than adequate one at that.

The intellectual substance is important for the explanation and defence of DAP’s positions on the critical issues of nation-building.

Through his writings and public pronouncements, Ramasamy has assayed that important role well. Not as well as Devan Nair did in the period of DAP’s emergence in 1966-67 before he decamped for Singapore, but good enough to deserve keeping him on the roster for want of a substitute.

Party veteran Lim Kit Siang has played this significant role for DAP but he is not as holistic a thinker as Ramasamy.

Decades-long consequences

This role is important because the presentation of persuasive arguments is a vital requirement of contending parties in a democracy.

Among the latter, the preservation of individuals capable of performing this role is an acknowledgement that the better presenter and arguer ought to lead and be empowered.

After all, democracies are debating societies - those chosen to lead ought to be the ones that can tender the more persuasive arguments.

See where PAS has gotten itself today by disregarding this principle of leader selection, especially under its president Abdul Hadi Awang.

He has been spouting nonsense for a long time, unchecked by his peers in the party.

Now, the party is saddled with Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor, their caretaker menteri besar for Kedah who thinks demagoguery is an adequate substitute for reason.

Caretaker Kedah menteri besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor

Presently, Sanusi is in an unenviable situation, chiefly from having a mouth that disdains checking in at the front desk of reason before letting-off steam.

DAP espouses meritocracy as a principle of selection for the country in general.

If the party drops Ramasamy and replaces him with someone who is not of adequate quality, what is it saying about its fight for meritocracy?

That it is easier to fight for principles than to live up to them.

In the major democracies of the world, parties that have scanted meritocracy in the selection of their leaders have had to pay a steep price for this dereliction.

The Democrats in the United States are a case in point.

They are now stuck with Joe Biden, a leader not just physically unfit for the burdens of presidential office but intellectually deficient, a fact evident over the long period of time he has sought public office.

What’s worse is that if Biden is renominated by the Democrats to run for office again in 2024 when he will be 82, and if he wins and his cognitive decline accelerates, he will be succeeded by Kamala Harris, a prospect even diehard Democrats would be loath to support.

Collective guilt over the Vietnam War prevented a whole generation of talented Democrats from seeking office, with the consequence that they were scraping the bottom of the barrel for candidates half a century after the war ended in 1975.

The upshot: The party winds up with a duffer like Biden and a total non-entity like Harris.

Conclusion: Thou shall not scant intellectual merit in leaders. It isn’t often that you get it and when you do, you keep it as long as you can, especially if there is no adequate replacement. - Mkini

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TERENCE NETTO is a journalist with half a century’s experience.

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