Opinion: When will Lim Guan Eng join MCA?

Opinion: When will Lim Guan Eng join MCA?


23 May 2025 • 10:00 AM MYT


TheRealNehruism
Writer. Seeker. Teacher

Image credit: Sinar Harian


Lim Guan Eng is attacking the Penang government led by Chow Kon Yeow again.

This time it is over the fact that Penang had to borrow RM 100 million from the federal government recently. Lim is ostensibly incensed by the fact that the finances of the state government has become so sick, when it was so healthy when he headed it, that it now has to borrow money from outside sources.


Other than finances, Lim also has a host of other complaints against the Chow led Penang state government, ranging from a dodgy land deal to delays in a road widening project to a drop in imbursement to non-Muslim houses of worship.


Now, I am not contesting the validity of Lim Guan Eng’s criticism against the Chow led Penang government – what I am wondering about is for how long more will Lim Guan Eng stick around in DAP.


Lim Guan Eng today is so aimless and functionless in DAP , that he currently has no important party position.


In the lead-up to the party's 18th National Congress earlier this year, Lim was asked to withdraw from the leadership race owing to discontent among the party's grassroots over his leadership as well as his clashes with other party leaders.


Lim however, persisted, but he was almost booted out of the Central Executive Committee, when he came out 26th in a 30 member central committee.


Guan Eng used to be the supremo and heir apparent of DAP. By DAP’s 18th congress however, he had dropped so drastically in authority and prestige, the he only served as its national chairman. After the 18th congress however, he would be even further humiliated, when he couldn’t even retain the national chairman post. Like a slap in the face, he was replaced by his former deputy, Gobind Singh Deo. Not only Guan Eng, almost his entire faction, from the likes of sister Lim Hui Ying to RSN Rayer to Teresa Kok, have been taken out of the upper echelon of DAP.


Following the Asian “ you must be able to understand by yourself what is going on, without needing everything to be explained to you” culture, we all can see that what is happening to Lim Guan Eng is that he is being pushed out of DAP.


DAP today wants to evolve into becoming a ruling party, and it is no longer interested in politicians like Guan Eng, who only function well for as long as DAP remains an opposition party.


When times change, everything must evolve to remain in tune with reality. Those that can’t change, will be forced to become extinct. This is the law of life.


Lim Guan Eng tried to change to keep up with the times. He tried to keep in sync with Dap’s role as the ruling party, when he took the Finance Minister position, the first time DAP, through its coalition PH, was able to conquer Putrajaya in 2018.


However, just like how the dinosaurs did not succeed in adapting to the changing times, Lim Guan Eng also failed adapt to DAP’s changing role. Although he had become the finance minister and a part of the ruling government , he still acted like the opposition, and it was partly because of his inability to adapt to his role that PH and DAP were prematurely toppled just 22 months into their reign.


In 2022, when PH and DAP managed to reconquer Putrajaya, Lim Guan Eng was not invited back. This time, not only was he not offered a cabinet position, he was not even offered any important state positions. Earlier in the year, even his party position was retracted.


The only thing that Lim Guan Eng has now is his Bagan parliamentary seat and Air Putih state assembly seat that he won in the 2022 general election. Going by the trend however, I believe it is quite likely that even these seats will be taken away from him in the next general election.


Considering DAP's change in circumstances as well as how Lim Guan Eng is behaving, there is no grounds for DAP to give Guan Eng any seats and platform, when all he is likely going to do is use the visibility and platform that they provide him, to continue to attack the party from within.


Let us be frank – when Lim Guan Eng is criticising Penang’s finances, as well as questioning a whole host of their other decisions, he is basically putting DAP in a very difficult position.


DAP can’t ignore him, because he is still somebody, but if they entertain him, they are going to be forced become like the proverbial man who entered the puddle to wrestle with a pig – in the end, all that happened was that the man was splattered with mud – the pig however, was happy.


If Lim truly cared about the state’s finances or how the Penang government was handling a road widening project, he could have asked his colleagues privately, using internal channels, and only chose to speak out publicly against them, if they did not engage him despite him asking them 2 or 3 times.


That he is criticising them at get go however, indicates that more than his concern about the state’s finance and management, what is truly motivating Lim to do what he is doing is likely fear, frustration, bitterness and envy.


I will go on a limb and say that Lim is currently frustrated that he is being side-lined by the party that his own father started, that he had once not only led, but spent the bulk of his life building.


He is also probably aware that he might not be given either a state or a federal seat in the next election, and that is causing him to be afraid, because common sense tells us that the easiest way to deny him the seat that he requires to remain relevant in national politics, is if he is found guilty in his ongoing tunnel-gate court case.


That he believes that it is other people, many of whom are his juniors, that are enjoying the fruits of DAP’s success, when it was him that toiled for years to and decades to defend and cultivate DAP, to the point that it has reached this level, is likely also causing him to be engulfed in bitterness and envy.


When you put all of this together, what I feel is going to happen in the near future, is that Lim Guan Eng is going to continue to goad and taunt DAP’s current leadership, to the point that they become irritated enough to visibly throw him out of the party.


Lim probably can’t bring himself to leave DAP, the party that he so intimately identifies with, although he finds it difficult to remain in DAP. Thus what Lim probably desires today, is for him to be thrown out of DAP, so that he doesn’t have to stay in DAP without having to leave it.


DAP’s leadership on the other hand, are likely going to try to bear with the irritation that Lim Guan Eng is causing them, until the next general election, where they will pull the carpet under his feet, by not giving him a seat to contest. Without having any seats, Lim Guan Eng will lose all of his platforms to remain relevant in the country, and finally begin his march to political oblivion.


Either way, regardless of whether he is visibly thrown out or silently snuffed out of DAP, I feel that Lim Guan Eng’s future is in MCA, or maybe even Gerakan.


Lim Guan Eng is best as Mr. Opposition, while DAP looks like it is going to be a part of the ruling government for the foreseeable future.


MCA and Gerakan on the other hand, look like they are going to be a part of the opposition for at least a few more years, and thus they direly need someone like Lim Guan Eng, who knows the ins and out of being an effective opposition, to guide them to become a more effective, relevent, potent and meaningful opposition.


Considering how ill-suited Guan Eng is in DAP, and how well suited he is in MCA or Gerakan, I think it is only a matter of time before Guan Eng leaves DAP, and joins the ranks of DAP’s traditional opponents.

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kt comments:

Sathia matey has been very provocative with the title of this article, wakakaka, not unlike saying one Old Man will join Urimal, wakakaka again.