Opinion: Is Steven Sim the traitor in the eyes of Lim Guan Eng’s camp?

Opinion: Is Steven Sim the traitor in the eyes of Lim Guan Eng’s camp?


13 Mar 2025 • 5:30 PM MYT


TheRealNehruism
Writer. Seeker. Teacher

Image credit: Astro Awani / Sinar Daily


Last month, at Lim Kit Siang’s 84th birthday bash, Lim Guan Eng’s aide Tan Khong Chong had repeatedly and publicly hurled abuse at HR Minister Steven Sim by calling him a "Fan Gu Zai" or traitor.


Although Sim, will remain composed, and continue to engage with attendees and posing for photos, Tan will stand behind him, while repeatedly accusing him of attempting to undermine Lim Guan Eng.


"If he dares to fight, we will fight too. What is there to be afraid of? He has his supporters, and we have ours. Let's see what happens!" the man was quoted as saying.


"Eh, Steven, am I wrong? You are a traitor, aren't you?” Tan said to publicly shame Steven.


Although Steven had downplayed the incident and Tan had apologised for his outburst, doubts still remain as to whether his outburst was spontaneous or pre-planned.


Also conspicuous is the absence of any statement by Lim Guan Eng to disassociate himself from the antics of his aide.


Today, S.Neelamekan, the chairman of DAP’s Lunas branch in Kedah has again fired a salvo against a traitor, while praising Lim Guan Eng as someone that both Malaysia and DAP needs.


From the sound of it, Neelamekan belongs in Lim Guan Eng’s camp, and the traitor that he might be referring to might also be Steven Sim.


Why am I daringly postulating that it is Steven that is the subject of the abuse of Lim Guan Eng’s camp, in this highly litigious time in Malaysian politics?


Well, first of all, it is because DAP’s election is on March 16, so I doubt that either Steven or Lim Guan Eng will be much interested in taking me to court, when such an important day for them is just around the corner.


Also, by the looks of it, they probably have enough on their hands fighting each other rather than needing to concern themselves with lodging a report with the authorities, even if they take umbrage to what I have to say.


Also, it is not as if I plucked the opinion that it is Steven that Lim Guan Eng’s camp is viewing as a traitor from the air.


Like I had mentioned before, it was just last month that Lim Guan Eng’s aide called Steven a traitor in public, while Lim Guan Eng never said anything to distance himself from his aide’s remark.


Also, although Neelamekan did not name Steven specially, the hints he gave does give credence to the view that it is Steven that is the most likely person that the Lim Guan Eng camp is seeing as a traitor.


“Imagine you nurture a child, guide him, and this political son of yours betrays you, the party and the community it represents.


“If he can do that at the flip of a coin to Guan Eng, who stepped aside to coronate him to the peak where he now sits, it won’t take him long to sell the party to the highest bidder,” Neelamekan said.


It is an open secret that Steven used to be Lim Guan Eng’s blue eyed boy.


That Neelamekan is hinting that the “traitor” is someone that was Lim’s “political son” who is akin to a “Brutus” who is stabbing his political father in the back, is thus an indication that perhaps it is Steven that is the person that he is referring to as the traitor in their camp.


While Neelamekan is hinting that the reason that the "traitor" might be betraying Lim Guan Eng is because the Young Turk traitor wish to maintain his power, fame and position by bootlicking to Umno, even to the extent of allowing himself to be held to ransom by those who spew racial and religious fanaticism, I think that that the “traitor” might just be “betraying” Lim Guan Eng, simply because he is being in tune with the times.


DAP is no longer an opposition to the government. Today, it is a part of the government.


When it was the opposition, it is true that DAP needed firebrands and true believers, who were willing to stand up for DAP ideals even if it means that they have to fight a battle that they themselves know they will surely lose, against a far superior opponents, simply to stay true to what they believe in.


But now that DAP is a part of the government, how in the world is DAP going to maintain its rule, if it refuses to compromise with those who lie outside of the party and its belief system?


Scientists can afford to take joy in pure theory, but engineers who have to actually build something in the real world following the theories that the scientist have discovered, will always make compromises in order to make things happen.


This is time for engineers, not scientists, in DAP.


Practical people who do practical things will always compromise their vision and ideals, in order to have something to show in the real world.


It is only idealist and true believers who will not accept anything unless it is exactly as how they have envisioned it to be, but practical people – like engineers and entrepreneurs – must be the sort to accept something today, even if it is not exactly as how they wish it to be, so that they can do something today, imperfect as it maybe, rather than do nothing at all, because they are waiting for a perfect tomorrow.


While loyalists to the old ways like Tan Khong Chong and Neelamakan, will inevitably believe that those who don’t share their ideals, are traitors and bootlickers, this is not the only explanation there is.


There is another explanation, and that explanation is best given by the American working class philosopher, Eric Hoffer.


“A movement is pioneered by men of words, materialized by fanatics and consolidated by men of action. It is usually an advantage to a movement, and perhaps a prerequisite for its endurance, that these roles should be played by different men succeeding each other as conditions require. When the same person or persons (or the same type of person) leads a movement from its inception to maturity, it usually ends in disaster.”


Today is the time for consolidation for DAP.


Seeing so, its true believers need to give way to the practical men and women of action in the party.


While it is true that like Neelamaken says, people like Lim Guan Eng, went to jail not once but multiple times as they held true to their principles of justice and fairness, and that they have sacrificed and struggled immensely for the sake of the party and its ideals, and that the young leaders today only enjoy the perks, benefits, and luxury that power today, because of the the blood, sweat and tears of the old generation, it is also true that time and tide waits for no man.


No matter what contributions are and how great you are, when your time is up, your time is up.


Rather than rage against the light, and refuse to go gently into the night, it might actually be better for the true believers in DAP to just accept that their destiny is to win, but not to rule.


If they do that, they will give way to the young generation to rule, and win eternal glory and appreciation from the generations to come.


If they don’t, then they will condemn the party to waste its years and decades of struggle, by forcing it to lose, right when victory is at hand, by insisting that the party continues to live in a world that no longer exists, in a time that has long since passed.