The necessary Malay-nization of DAP

To be frank I have not been personally comfy with the choice of Ramkarpal Singh Deo as the DAP's candidate for Gelugor. Now, my unease has nothing, nothing at all, to do with Ramkarpal's competency to be an excellent people's representative (he will definitely be) nor about the allegations of nepotism because Ramkarpal himself has answered that unfair allegation most clearly and competently - see TMI's Nepotism not an issue in Gelugor.

Mind, I would ask DAP to be on alert as the EC may do to him what the court has done to his late father (Huan's wet dream wakakaka), and the Home Ministry now wants to do with Teresa Kok. BN has wet dreams about removing DAP MPs and potential MPs from parliament by disqualifying them one way or another, ... 

... because I suspect UMNO is so shit scared of the DAP that it has even (again my suspicion) in the persons of ministers Jamil Khir Baharom and Mustapha Mohamed lulled, lured, lasso-ed and led stray PAS with the belief that UMNO will support the implementation of hudud in Kelantan, wherein its real aim is to split the Pakatan duo asunder ..... and sadly, I assess UMNO has succeeded.

Back to Gelugor, I was not all that happy with Gelugor going to a DAP non-Malay. Yes, I had hoped for DAP to nominate a Malay candidate for the seat left vacated by my hero, the late Karpal Singh.

And if I have my 'rathers', then my personal choice would be a DAP party old-timer, Zulkifli Mohd Noor who, alas for me, has not been/is not on good terms with Lim Senior and Junior.

Zul has been a DAP member for 26 years, way before many of his current abusive online PR critics had grown their first pubic hair, wakakaka. Zul was once a VP of the party.

In 2004 he was the DAP candidate for Bukit Bendera and acquired quite a credible showing where he won a massive 18,000 votes out of a maximum possible of 47,000. 

As I had blogged previously (many years ago), the DAP might have partial claim to their avowed multi-ethnic credentials – for example, they have put up many Indian candidates who have been voted successfully into both federal Parliament and State Assemblies.

Unfortunately, until 2013 only one of its Malay candidates, Ahmad Nor, was ever successful. Zul could have been the second had he stood again in 2008.

But I am so delighted to see that in the 2013 general and state elections, the DAP has Ariff Sabri (better known to us as blogger Sakmongol AK47) and my MP Zairil Khir as federal MPs, and Tengku Zulpuri Shah Raja Puri as the opposition leader in the Pahang DUN. So will you just look at the sterling work done by them.

DAP could possibly have been blessed by another brilliant young Malaysian in NS if a very unhappy senior person (who I once adored) had not somehow suffered a sad case of noblesse oblige missing. Wakakaka.

Back to Zul - yes, it was in a Chinese-majority Bukit Bendera in Penang that Zul made a most decent mark in the general elections, by winning nearly 18000 of the 47000 votes, and that’s no mean feat if we look at the ethnic breakdown. The Chinese-majority federal seat had 13.82% Malays, 73.97% Chinese and 11.07% Indians plus a sprinkling of 1.14% Thais, Eurasian, etc. 

Even if all 14% Malays in that constituency had turned up to cast their ballots for Zul (which was absolutely unlikely), he wouldn’t get more than 5000 votes. This meant that there was a whole lot of Chinese votes (13,000 plus) for him.

I wrote on what I believed were the three possible reasons why Zul didn't make it in 2004:

(1) he was exposed/introduced to the locals in Bukit Bendera a wee too late in the game (only close to the 2004 general elections). Though the DAP has been a powerful brand the party (then in 2004) could/should not assume that was the magic key to winning.

(2) the Gerakan of 2004 wasn't exactly sleeping in Bukit Bendera.

Though tarnished in recent years (prior to 2004) by Raja Bodek, the Gerakan was in 2004 still a reasonably popular brand, especially with the middle age population.  Its candidate Chia Kwang Chye was quite a much-liked Bukit Bendera MP.

(3) then (in 2004), there was that freshly minted ‘Mr Clean’ or Bao Gong who was later promoted to become the Sultan of Somnambulence, wakakaka.

The sum of it was that Zul as a DAP member did very well in a Chinese-majority constituency against a much-liked Gerakan Chinese candidate.

Under a program of continuous political investments (and not just campaigning on the eve of the election) Zul could be a winning candidate. This was proven by another DAP Malay candidate Zairil Khir in winning the BB seat in 2013 to become my MP.

Back to 2008 GE-12, I was personally disappointed to see Zul completely missing from the general election, when without doubt he would have won and made history as the second DAP Malay MP, giving the DAP more shine to its multi-ethnic credentials and legitimacy.

Then, as a DAP supporter (though not a member) I posted I wished to see the DAP rethink its old/original Malaysian Malaysia ideology, and to reconsider its campaign to abolish bumiputra privileges.

I had then (in 2008) suggested that the DAP look at three issues:

(1) develop a new political vision to replace its Malaysian Malaysia that will ameliorate the fears of the Malay.

(2) develop a fresh strategic policy to accept the NEP but one that will be managed fairly and exclusively for bumiputera interest. This does not in any way disregard the currently marginalized Indians or the less fortunate Chinese. Preserve the NEP exclusively for the needy Melayu and other bumis.

Forget about Anwar Ibrahim’s earlier claim that he would get rid of the NEP or that the policy has outlived its usefulness. As has been said (by none other than Ong Ka Ting of MCA, wakakaka), Anwar would speak in human language to humans, and spirit language to spirits. Yes, he’d say anything to climb up the ladder of power, from 916 to half past six.

I personally believe that the NEP still has its beneficial use for a large segment of the Malay and Sarawak/Sabah bumis, and also the much marginalized Indians in Peninsula. It’s the misuse of this apparatus for affirmative action that’s the problem, not the NEP per se.

(3) get rid of its socialist label – most Malays don’t understand what it stands for, other than it must be a part of the Satanic communist diabolical plot.

I lamented in 2008 that the DAP missed a wonderful opportunity to present Zulkifli Mohd Noor as a federal candidate in the March 2008 general elections. So it's sad to see that today Zul has been so frustrated by the new DAP leadership he has left all party positions though as mentioned, he remains a party member.

For those moronic mealy mouth idiots who accused Zul of being a frog out for material advantage, they may wish to remind themselves once again that last year Zul resigned from all his party positions and party assigned positions, such as councillor in the Penang island municipality (MPPP), Bayan Baru parliamentary liaison committee head, state DAP committee member, and as director of GLC, Penang Global Tourism, a subsidiary of Penang Development Corporation (PDC), BUT significantly NOT his party membership. Are these the characteristics of a tadpole?

Unfortunately, as I see it, the new DAP leadership might have come to forget old faithfuls, the true party believers like Zul, in their new found preference for the newer generation of leaders, those with MBA and all sorts of glittering paper qualifications or even high profile personalities like Ariff Sabri.

Perhaps Zul has been a tragic victim of the new DAP leadership strategy and strategic perception.

Personally, I see a political party requiring both groups of representatives, the brilliant dashing ones with political verve and the salt-of-the-earth type, as each group has a different role towards representing the public, but I suppose the current DAP leadership know better or they think they know better.

Leaving poor Zul aside, I had really wanted to see the DAP pick a Malay member for the Gelugor by-election. To reiterate, this is not to say Ramkarpal is not competent to be Gelugor's parliamentary representative; au contraire he is most competent.

My opinion or wish has been more about the DAP assuming a greater meaningful position as a multiethnic party rather than who should represent Gelugoreans per se. Too late now!

But what about Teluk Intan?

There is possibly a new DAP Malay candidate for that by-election, and she's 27-year old sweetie Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud, the political secretary to Uncle Lim.

Already the cyber-scums are at their sleazy worst to pre-emptively demonize her in the eyes of the Malays in the Teluk Intan constituency - see TMI's Bikini smear campaign against DAP's Dyana nothing but 'gutter politics', says politicians , analysts, unscrupulously using a photo of Filipina actress sweetie Pauleen Luna to deliberately MISrepresent her as sweetie Dyana.

But what I really fear about the smear campaign against sweetie Dyana is that the DAP may chicken out of putting her as the much touted DAP candidate for the TI by-election, and backtrack into sh*t-scared safety by nominating a Chinese or Indian.

By such a play-safe action, that of a DAP retreating into its self-restricting non-Malay-ness, UMNO would be handed both a moral and a strategic victory as it wants DAP to be and thus to remain a Chinese party.

Thus, notwithstanding the undeniable threat of such a sleaze campaign (we Malaysians love sleaze even if fabricated), the DAP must bite the bullet and nominate sweetie Dyana for the TI by-election, and it must continue doing so with more Malays as its future election candidates for future state and federal parliaments.

Much as I dislike UMNO for its corrupt, and at times racist and arrogant behaviour, I had admired its willingness to place Indian rather than UMNO candidates in some general as well as by-elections, such as the Hulu Selangor and Ijok by-elections.  That has been its strength, though its downside had been its bulldozing ways which made nonsense of the term ‘alliance’ because it just rode roughshod over its so-called allies, MCA, Gerakan, MIC etc.

But recall by contrast PKR's action in the Ijok by-election in 2007. In my April 2007 post Ijok Indians racially marginalised by PKR? I wrote (extract only):

Well, it seems Premesh Chandran’s advice to the PKR, published in malaysiakini, has not been taken up.

[Premesh Chandran, one of the TaiKohs at Malaysiakini, opined that the PKR would be better off with an Indian candidate despite the Malay majority. Premesh provided an in-depth analysis that drew upon an earlier Chandra Muzzafar’s analysis for the 2000 Lunas by-election where PKR’s candidate Saifuddin Nasution won with a terrific voters swing against the BN]

Premesh added that an Anwar-led campaign for a PKR Indian candidate, supported by Chinese social and educationist movements, would provide the extra hare-koh (petis udang - zing) in the opposition rojak (spicy salad) for winning over the Malays and the other ethnic voters for a PKR victory.

PKR is likely to nominate a Malay candidate, Khalid Ibrahim, for the Ijok by-election. The PKR Youth vice-chief S Manikavasagam has expressed his unhappiness, pointing out a couple of things to the PKR top echelon, namely:

(1) notwithstanding that Ijok is a constituency with 50% Malay voters, the Barisan Nasional (BN) is fielding an Indian candidate, so why not PKR? and

(2) Khalid Ibrahim is a political ‘parachutist’, having just joined the party less than a year ago while there are capable PKR Indian members who have been in PKR for years and could well be the nominated candidate for the by-election.

And did it benefit PKR with its play-safe actions in the Hulu Selangor and Ijok by-elections?

Precisely because of PKR's less-than-admirable treatment of its Indian members I have just penned Karmic lot of PKR Indians? at my other blog BolehTalk, wakakaka.

So my advice to the DAP is not to be like the kniasu PKR when considering DAP Malay candidates like sweetie Dyana Sofya, and to continue proceeding on the path of nominating more and more Malay members as candidates for both state and federal general and by-elections.

Ironically (I just love this word), for the DAP to be ultimately recognized as a multiethnic political party, it must first Malay-nized itself, wakakaka.

Otherwise, the DAP will remain a small Chinese-Indian based party, not unlike PKR, a kniasu and small (and as Saifuddin Nasution admitted) Malay party.

Addendum:

TMI - DAP names Dyana Sofya as Teluk Intan candidate

The above was published after I posted The necessary Malay-nization of DAP.

Well done DAP, I congratulate you on your fine choice of candidate.