COMMENT | Loke falls on his sword

COMMENT | Loke falls on his sword

S Thayaparan

Published: Sep 28, 2026 7:00 AM


“Malay voters are no longer looking at achievements, performance, or track records; they simply do not want DAP in the government.”

- Anthony Loke

COMMENT | At this point, if DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke does not resign from his cabinet position, it would benefit the party’s enemies more than it would if he resigned. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Loke did nothing wrong, had opposed the pardon, and that his resignation would affect the stability of Madani.

Rational Malaysians understand that DAP resigning from cabinet positions and governmental agencies would not affect the stability of the Madani government because DAP MPs could still support the Anwar administration in terms of parliamentary voting; hence, this talking point that some DAP and Pakatan Harapan supporters spout is complete horse manure.


Loke's possible resignation is symbolic in that it demonstrates that, for a portion of the polity, Najib’s house arrest is the straw that broke the camel's back when it comes to the policies of Madani.


However, if it is stability that folks want to talk about, we could do that. From the get-go, the main factor affecting the stability of Madani was Umno and its relentless attacks against DAP. The fact that the prime minister chose not to publicly rebuke Umno and support his reformasi comrades points to how crippled the DAP was in Madani.

For the sake of Madani, DAP placed a monetary value on Teoh Beng Hock’s murder. And let us not forget all the other malfeasances that DAP has turned a blind eye to in the name of political stability.

Madani is merely a vehicle for Umno to engineer a reversal of fortune. By giving such prominence to Umno in Madani, the prime minister has allowed Umno to leverage its federal influence while carrying on demonising the DAP, which they used as a stand-in for the Chinese community.


By kneecapping DAP, which Madani has done because it is deathly afraid of spooking the Malays, Madani has done a good job of destabilising non-Malay support for DAP, which only benefits Umno and PAS but, more devastatingly, has engineered a polity whose irrational disdain for the DAP would hasten the demise of democracy in this country.

Negeri Sembilan issue

Rational Malaysians must really pay attention to what Loke told the premier when it comes to the current state of racial politics in Madani.


Loke said: "(For example) in the Negeri Sembilan state government, the majority of Malay voters interviewed said that the Harapan government is actually doing very well, but the main point is that they simply do not want DAP to be in the government.

“Malay voters are no longer looking at achievements, performance, or track records; they simply do not want DAP in the government.”

Think about this for a moment. Umno, with the enabling of Madani, has done such a good job of vilifying DAP that the Malays (in this example, Negeri Sembilan) would rather vote against their self-interests than have the DAP in government. This has been the modus operandi for Umno for decades.


Umno wants to destroy democratic opportunities where the Malays, especially if they are a minority in certain areas, understand that their welfare is safeguarded by a non-Malay majority.

This is a damning indictment and points to how effective the propaganda of Umno has been. When DAP voices out concern, which would help the Malay community, it is demonised, and more often than not, the head of Madani would side with the far-right ethnocentric agitators who really do nothing for the Malay community.

I do not mean this as a backhanded compliment, considering my public criticism of the DAP, but the party has always been a loyal supporter of the coalition they are in and, as far as mainstream politics is concerned, has been far more effective in their various public servant roles than the rest of the rabble they serve with.

Umno for Umno

And it is not as if there was never any simpatico between Umno and DAP personalities, who understood the realpolitik of the times. In 2018, Umno strongman Nazri Abdul Aziz said, “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 in Penang. These are DAP areas. I cannot leave them aside.”

Umno was never really for the Malays, but rather, they were for Umno. I remember when former Kota Raja Umno chief Amzah Umar revealed: “We give a seven percent discount for bumiputera buyers and 12 percent for Umno members, if I am not mistaken.”

And Umno knows that DAP is not and will never be a threat to “Malay rights” and Islam in this country. Here is Umno secretary-general Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki (below), just last year, who wanted to debunk the slander that Islam is under threat from DAP.


"This is a fundamental matter that we must understand, so that all slander and accusations - as though Umno is selling out the country, Islam, and the Malay struggle to others - can be put to rest."

Loke also said, "These are things that BN cannot oppose, and we cannot use their disagreement as an excuse, because BN has already agreed, so the prime minister also needs to make a decision.

“To a certain extent, we told the prime minister that he must be more decisive."

Malay rights

And therein lies the rub. Malay rights have been weaponised to the point that the Madani regime would rather not carry out any utilitarian policies that would benefit everyone, especially the Malays, because they are the majority, for fear of the opposition claiming that Malay/Muslim rights are being sidelined because of DAP.

Who benefits from all of this? While Perikatan Nasional may have taken exception to Anwar’s broadsides against the “maha kaya” (ultra rich) class, PKR rabble-rouser Hassan Abdul Karim has said that not only has there been a return of the crony class, but now we have the resurgence of the “maha kaya” class.

Read Hassan’s (below) warning, but pay attention to the third type: “These people seem to enjoy immunity and cannot be touched due to the 3R ban.”


The Pasir Gudang MP also noted their business dealings, even though this was expressly forbidden by the Federal Constitution.

DAP MP Syahredzan Johan, who I have always thought of as one of the better political operatives this country has to offer, said this: “The Madani government can do all these reforms because DAP is part of the administration. We are the beating heart of this government. We are the conscience of this government.”

Loke’s resignation demonstrates that DAP is the guilty conscience of Madani.



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