Loke's false premise on DAP's role in Madani

Loke's false premise on DAP's role in Madani

S Thayaparan
Published: Jul 27, 2026 7:00 AM
Updated: 9:52 AM



“Politicians are like bad horsemen who are so preoccupied with staying in the saddle that they can’t bother about where they’re going.”

- Economist and political scientist 

Joseph Alois Schumpeter

COMMENT | In a recent interview, DAP supremo Anthony Loke presented the base and the media with a false premise.

From reportage - “Withdrawing from the Pakatan Harapan pact would mean falling into the trap set by political opponents who ‘do not want the DAP in government’, said Loke, 49, who is also transport minister.”

Leaving Harapan was never an issue. Maybe it should be, but the reality is that rational people have not asked the DAP to leave Harapan because rational people understand that coalition politics is the only avenue we have to influence policy and the direction of this country.

However, some in the base have been asking the DAP to stop participating in Madani, which was exactly the point of the July 12 special congress that the DAP conveniently shelved.

DAP’s role in Madani

Now this false premise may work well for some, but any rational person who knows even a little bit about politics would understand that this is complete bunkum. In fact, what these so-called political rivals want is for DAP to remain in government.

DAP, by remaining in the government, gives the Malay uber alles types all the ammunition they need to engage in race-baiting politics, not to mention blame policy failures, especially when it comes to economic policy failures, as a convenient non-Malay target.

Furthermore, it gives the DAP’s political allies a convenient whipping boy when they want to burnish their race and religion credentials.

I do not think that anyone is seriously advocating for the DAP abandoning Harapan, but many are questioning DAP’s role in Madani.

DAP could still support Anwar but play no role in this Madani sham. Furthermore, Madani has demonstrated that it would throw DAP under the bus when it comes to Malay sensitivities.

DAP representatives have been vilified.

DAP representatives have had police reports made against them.

A DAP representative had his home firebombed.

DAP representatives have been reprimanded by the prime minister of their coalition.

DAP representatives have had to make retractions and apologies.

DAP representatives have been attacked by online mobs, who happen to also be the people who voted for them, and did you see DAP having a hissy fit and threatening to resign from all posts and abandoning Madani?

Have you seen Malay/Muslim coalition partners give genuine support when the DAP has come under these kinds of attacks?

Cost of staying in govt

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 nation building.

When “Thanos” was transferred, was this nation building?

When the state does not investigate certain cases, is this nation building?

When the state claims there is not enough evidence to prosecute religious provocateurs, is this nation building?

When the police refuse to act on the kidnapping of M Indira Gandhi’s child, the spirit of Teoh is present. When Raymond Koh, Amri Che Mat, Pamela Ling, and others are subject to enforced disappearance, is this nation building?

Or maybe something like the Urban Renewal Act (URA) is the kind of nation building that DAP is into.

From P Gunasegaram’s trenchant piece - “Now, here comes the killer. Under Section 5(2) of the proposed URA, the Federal Executive Committee will have the minister as chairperson. That would be Nga Kor Ming, the rising voice of DAP and a strong advocate of the URA, which property developers love. He would steer the FEC.”

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 and symbiotic relationships with an entrenched civil service to make moves on a state level.

This is why the prime minister is making all sorts of overtures to the civil service and apologises for his harsh tone towards them.

Furthermore, as cabinet members with a huge sway on policy, whatever policy moves that Umno makes are to ensure that it plays into the strategies of state moves, which ultimately is a political war of attrition with Harapan.

By kneecapping DAP, which Madani has done because it is deathly afraid of spooking the Malays, Madani has done a good job at destabilising non-Malay support for DAP, which only benefits Umno and PAS.


Madani’s political gamble

Corruption is not a recent phenomenon; rather, it is part of the DNA of the organism fueled by racial and religious imperatives and a compromised electoral system.

Umno/BN designed the system, and Madani is attempting to replicate it, so any attempt at corrective measures is met by a deluge of propaganda or the spectre of the “Green Wave”.

Remember Perikatan Nasional was briefly in power, and how did that go? With all those really dumb “Langkah, langkahs” (moves), professional charlatans figured out they didn’t even need voting to get into power, and a small shift in voting got them ejected from the halls of power in Putrajaya.

With the way the system is gerrymandered, and the unequal weightage of votes, issues like corruption and competent governance are not exactly the greatest concerns of a majority of rakyat who sustain themselves on entitlement programmes and the delirium of social media.

DAP can remain in Harapan without participating in a government that ultimately strengthens Umno and PAS strategies. Perhaps, when more Malaysians recognise that politics should not simply be about holding office, the conversation can shift.

DAP does not need government positions to support policies that benefit the average rakyat. The real question, then, is whether participation in government is genuinely about nation building - or whether it has become about preserving political power and personal interests.

It is funny; the scrapped July 12 special congress could have been the reset that Malaysia and Harapan needed.

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