A primer on DAP party polls

 

From Raja Ahmad Iskandar Fareez

Every 36 months, a window of opportunity emerges for DAP to shed light on the party’s governance structure for political commentators and the wider public.

With internal elections taking place every three years comes renewed interest in the happenings and structural make-up of the party.

This is a positive development and serves as a recognition of its increasingly important role in Malaysia’s political landscape.

As state chapters conduct their respective conventions, conversations in recent weeks have revolved around the recently concluded Penang DAP party polls.

Of the various chatters and commentaries online, this opinion piece by an FMT reader particularly piqued my interest.

In his letter, the writer seems to raise doubts on the party’s two-tiered polling process and questioned how much the outcome reflected the desires of delegates.

Regarding his assertions on DAP’s internal election process, I have found similar questions posed by others online.

I shall use this article to correct misconceptions and touch on the basic features and spirit of the system as outlined in the party constitution.

On his second assertion and speculation on the results, I believe this subject has been sufficiently addressed by numerous detailed analyses from far more qualified political scientists, observers, commentators and journalists out there.

Therefore, I will not be elaborating on it further.

Hopefully, this short primer of DAP’s internal electoral process will serve to benefit many, including those who casually follow the ongoings of Malaysian politics.

Democratic on multiple levels

As per the tradition of most left-wing parties, DAP is led by a secretary-general and it practices a delegate system, where delegates represent their respective branches to elect a cohort of leaders at the state and national levels.

For example, branch members vote for the delegates they want to send to the DAP national congress.

These delegates will then elect 30 central executive committee (CEC) members, from whom a secretary-general, a national chairman, and other office bearers are elected.

At the state level, delegates vote for only 15 candidates to be part of the state committee.

They then go through a similar process where successfully elected candidates deliberate and elect office bearers from among themselves.

Essentially, whoever commands the confidence of the majority of this cohort will helm the committee.

This is laid out in the party constitution where it reads that 

every state committee member shall elect among its members

 who occupies positions such as 

a state chairman, a state deputy chairman, two state vice-chairmen, a state secretary

 and so on.

DAP’s democratic practice, where leaders are not directly elected, is not out of the ordinary.

In fact, if we take a closer look at Malaysia’s parliamentary system, we also do not directly elect the members of the executive branch – i.e. the prime minister, deputy prime ministers and ministers.

Unlike the US-style presidential system, we vote for our representatives in Parliament.

Whoever commands the majority support among these parliamentarians will then get the chance to lead and form a government. A similar concept applies to the states.

Democratic practice among Malaysia’s political parties is vibrant and takes many forms, and different parties have their own methods of determining their leadership lineup.

PKR practices direct elections to select its president, while for Umno, delegates from parliamentary divisions directly vote for their top leaders.

Of course, no model or approach is perfect, and each will have its merits and challenges.

However, knowing the power structures and how they function becomes invaluable for members at the grassroots level to influence and sway leaders at the top – which is essentially what democracy is all about.

Finding common ground

Given DAP’s differentiated governing structure, party delegates will have formulated customised voting strategies, each with their own set of preferred leaders, at the national level (30 members) or state level (15 members).

It may not fully rely on a single persona, rendering assessments on a candidate’s performance based solely on votes garnered wholly inaccurate.

This practice of electing a pool of candidates also allows delegates to ensure the selection of an inclusive leadership team that is diverse in terms of experience, skillsets, background, perspectives, and outlook – becoming a natural mechanism of check and balance.

Combine this with other safeguards in the party constitution including provisions on term limits, fair representation mechanisms, and inclusion of elected representatives as part of the organisation’s decision-making process, the structure provides the party with an impetus to stay relevant with the times.

Democracy must ultimately serve the people.

This means that our focus should go beyond just the polling booth to how we can find common ground on issues that matter to the people.

Measures implemented by DAP have ensured that there are enough channels and avenues within the party to bring up the aspirations and concerns of members and the public to be considered during committee deliberations.

It is heartening to see more and more people taking interest in the inner workings of DAP.

Hopefully, this opens up more interactions that not only will improve how we serve the people but also strengthen Malaysia’s democratic practices. - FMT

Raja Ahmad Iskandar Fareez is the Kuala Lumpur DAP Youth publicity secretary.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.