DAP will never flourish with the Lims' leadership

FMT:

Break up PH if Anwar doesn’t apologise, says DAP man

Anwar Ibrahim said he had stopped an opposition attempt for a bloc vote on the Supply Bill in the Dewan Rakyat.

PETALING JAYA: A DAP Youth leader has called for severing ties with PKR, automatically disbanding Pakatan Harapan (PH), if Anwar Ibrahim does not apologise for abandoning opposition to the second reading of the federal budget.

DAP Youth national secretary Teh Hoong Keat said many Pakatan Harapan MPs had strongly criticised the budget as unjust and insufficient to deal with the national health and economic crisis.

Some MPs even said they would “resolutely oppose” the budget, giving people the impression that the budget could possibly be rejected.

However, the failure of PH to muster 15 MPs to force a bloc vote meant that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s government had “passed the test” when the Supply Bill 2021 was approved for a second reading.

Teh said the failure to hold a bloc vote was the DAP’s biggest humiliation in the Dewan Rakyat.

“Since Anwar admitted that he instructed MPs from PKR and DAP not to call for a bloc vote, he must take full responsibility for his misjudgement and apologise to all PH supporters,” Teh said.

“If Anwar is still insistent that his judgment was correct, then the DAP central leaders should decisively sever ties with PKR, put a stop to the alliance to automatically disband Pakatan Harapan, and only maintain minimal cooperation with opposition parties,” he said in a statement.

Earlier this evening, Anwar revealed that DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and Amanah president Mohamad Sabu had been keen to push for a bloc vote on the federal budget but that he had requested against it.

Anwar, who is opposition leader and PKR president, said the move was to allow MPs to scrutinise the budget in detail.

Teh said Anwar had had the opportunity to restore and boost the morale of PH, especially after repeatedly claiming he had secured a strong majority of support from MPs to be able to form a new government.

The budget failure had brought about “a serious political public relations crisis that dismantled the credibility of PH and extinguished the rakyat’s passion and hope for reforms”, he said.

Teh said that the DAP, as the largest political party in the Dewan Rakyat, should contest on its own at the next general election, and negotiate with other political parties to form alliances and a government only after the elections.

“Through this mechanism, DAP can avoid being used and ‘kidnapped’ by other component parties,” he said.

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kt notes:

Wakakaka, so now the DAP realises it has been USED by others, like Mahathir? Wakakaka again.

But without Anwar, which Malay leader will the DAP rely upon to take it back to Putrajaya?

Now, don't tell me Atuk, wakakaka, or I'll shaft his old dick into your mouth.

The trouble is the DAP by itself cannot become a ruling party for the reason Malaysia is a Malay-majority nation, like it or not.

DAP or its top leaders like the Lims, Loke, and their inner cohorts (eg. TP, Ngeh-Ngiao cousins, etc) also 'play favourites', marginalising DAP very own Malay leaders who don't toe the Lims' line. Take Zaid Ibrahim - he may be a bit of a loose cannon and that's because he won't and cannot kowtow to any bully. DAP has marginalise him since he was ignored in 2018 and thereafter, not even for a senator's post.

Another DAP Malay leader that I particularly supported because of his long term loyalty to the party, of 26 years, has been the late Zulkifli Mohd Noor. The DAP broke his heart when they marginalised him in favour of newbies Liew Chin Tong (2008) and subsequently Zairil Khir (2013) in Bukit Bendera. Even then he hung on and soldiered valiantly for the DAP. But years later, seeing utterly no hope as a political candidate with the mob of newbies pouring in (no doubt as Zaid Ibrahim must have felt), on 24 Oct 2013 broken hearted he left DAP, and in Oct 2015 formed the PAP (not the Sing one but called People's Alternative Party). But alas for the late Zulkifli, his newly formed PAP was hijacked by A David Dass who swarmed the party with mainly Indian members. Sadly, he passed away in 2019.

the late Zulkifli Mohd Noor 

In Feb 2018, he held a press conference, where NST reported him saying it was impossible for the PAP to win any seat as it was fielding Indian candidates when there was no Indian-majority federal constituency in Malaysia:

‘The People's Alternative Party (PAP) will never win a single seat (in the 14th general election).’

This was the reaction by its former president, Zulkifli Mohd Noor, soon after announcing his resignation and departure from the party, along with nine other central executive committee (CEC) members, effective last Saturday.

Zulkifli, who led PAP, a DAP splinter party since 2015, said simultaneously, all 25 of the party's candidates, who are supposed to be fielded in Penang in the coming polls, would withdraw from the race.

He said the decision was made after the party's secretary-general, A. David Dass, decided to form a new CEC and lodged a complaint with the Registrar of Societies (RoS) over infighting among members.

Wikipedia also informs us: On 27 February 2018, founder Zulkifli Mohd Noor resigned and left the party, along with nine other central executive committee members after A. David Dass hijacked the party and become president, formed a new central executive committee and brought in mostly ethnic Indian members to fill the vacated posts. In the 14th General Election, PAP partnered with the PAS-led Gagasan Sejahtera but failed in their maiden election with all their candidates having lost their deposits.

Before Zul's demise, on 01 Oct 2013, the Editor of The Edge wrote a piece titled 'The tragic story of DAP and Zulkifli Mohd Noor', as follows:

GEORGE TOWN (Oct 1): The saga of the DAP’s central executive committee re-election on Sunday (Sept 29) had a dramatic prologue when one of its most veteran members accused the party’s leadership of racialism and manipulation.

In two consecutive press conferences over a few days, Zulkifli Mohd Noor, a veteran of 26 years, specifically offered himself to take over as DAP’s chairman, saying he was doing so in the name of his Malay race and "marginalised representatives".

Stunning his comrades, he claimed that despite its multi-racial objective the party had never been headed by a Malay in its 47-year history.

Now, Zulkifli is no small fry. He was an elected deputy secretary-general and national vice-chairman of the DAP. And so when he raised a poser before the re-election – directed by the Registrar of Societies – over how many Malays would actually be voted in, many were certainly compelled to take attention.

As it turned out, of the seven Malay members who contested, only one – Zairil Khir Johari with 1,132 votes – managed to make it into the twenty elected slots for the CEC. The eighth, Roseli Abdul Ghani, was among 17 DAP members who withdrew from the race. Zulkifli himself failed, getting only 220 votes, far less than the 808 attained by Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham – the last among the twenty voted in.

(During the original CEC election on Dec 15 last year, Zulkifli garnered 216 votes and after a tabulation error was announced, he recorded 249; then also neither enough to win a place in the CEC.)

'No place for Malays after 2008 GE' 

As a postscript to the saga, Zulkifli later declared that his earlier criticisms had been vindicated. “The DAP is not a place for Malays after 8th March 2008,” he stressed. “Not a single ‘original’ Malay leader has been elected (in the CEC).”

He labelled Zairil as a “special Malay” whose victory was due to support from the party’s top leadership, and described the appointment into the CEC of Senator Ariffin Omar (who got 441 votes – still insufficient to be elected), as mere “wallpaper”. 

Party members however have asserted that it was just a case of allowing democracy run its course, with individuals being voted for their intrinsic merits rather than their race. 

Zulkifli also claimed that his criticisms against secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and his father, adviser Lim Kit Siang, had “opened the delegates’ eyes”, thereby reducing the duos’ share of votes although both managed enough to remain in the CEC. Backing his claim that the re-election outcome was manipulated, he pointed to the 17 who withdrew from the race.

“Were they protesting or was it to aid the evil plan of deception and lies by certain parties?” Zulkifli said. “The delegates, many of whom are new members, are easily influenced and trust those above them in their strategy of deception and lies.” 

A spirited and vocal DAP member 

For many DAP members who have known Zulkifli all these years, all this has come as a shock and a tragic turn of events. I, myself, used to meet him while covering DAP events in the 1990s. He had always been a very spirited and friendly politician who genuinely believed in the ideals of the DAP, and generally got along with most party members and the media. No doubt, he was opinionated and did not mince his words; I personally remember seeing him make whipping comments to fellow party members. But, whatever he wanted to say was expressed straight in the presence of those whom he ticked off. 

For the 18-odd years that I have known him, I have never heard him lash out at the party’s leadership in public or the media. Never. The press conference on Sept 19 was the first time that he openly criticised the leadership to the media, after some 26 years in the party. 

But 2008 was a watershed for a veteran member like Zulkifli. When I met him again in the later part of that year, following the DAP’s massive electoral victory in Penang in the general election of March 8, he seemed very disappointed and indignant, almost hurt. Despite him being fielded in many previous elections, Zulkifli had not even been chosen as a candidate in that fateful election of March 8, 2008, in which he may well have won in view of the enormous public mood and political swing at that time.

(Among others, he had previously contested and lost the Bukit Bendera and Bayan Baru parliamentary contests for the DAP in 2004 and 2008 respectively.)

See my 20 Feb 2014 post Spartans no more?

Nevertheless, Zulkifli was appointed as a councillor in the Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP) where he worked assiduously, going to the ground to tackle various problems, from matters related to hawkers to illegal parking attendants. I remember accompanying him during a field trip with councillors to inspect a new bridge project in Jelutong. He spoke privately about his intense disappointment, that not a single Malay DAP member was fielded in Penang, and that as a veteran of so many years he was sidelined from that very important election of 2008. 

Umbrage as seats given away to PKR 

To make it worse, key multi-ethnic constituencies where DAP’s Malay members could possibly win, like Bayan Baru and its three state constituencies of Batu Maung, Pantai Jerejak and Batu Uban, were given to PKR to contest.

(Bayan Baru was won by the late Ahmad Nor – former president of the public and civil service union body Cuepacs – on a DAP ticket in 1990.) 

Things came to a head in August 2011, when Zulkifli issued a statement that the DAP had “no choice” but to request at least one parliament and five state seats from PKR in Penang in the next polls. He warned that the DAP may be perceived to be "anti-Malay and chauvinistic" should it fail to field Malay candidates in the next election. At about the same time, the Penang Malay Congress was formed and headed by president Rahmat Isahak, a DAP member. For quite a while, the PMC supported the DAP-led state government while berating Umno. 

Interestingly, Rahmat also led a series of attacks against state PKR leaders like Datuk Mansor Othman and Datuk Abdul Malik Abul Kassim, especially the latter who had, in 2008, won the Batu Maung seat that could have been won by a DAP Malay candidate. Rahmat only recently left the party and was seen lending support to Zulkifli at the recent press conferences. Whatever happens now – there are speculations that he will quit the party and join another – is really academic, perhaps even inconsequential. 

For the real heartbreak is that such a veteran who has seen the party’s trials and tribulations for so long should have a falling out with the leadership in such an ignominious way. That is the tragedy of both the party and the veteran who has long served with it.