Tags

, , , , ,


[1] The DAP must be getting desperate. First came the warnings about the “Green Wave.” Then, in Johor, that a vote for UMNO-BN would mean a pardon for Najib. Now, in Petaling Jaya, Tony Pua warns that if voters abandon Pakatan Harapan, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi will become the next prime minister. It is a measure of how far the DAP has fallen that it must now resort to fear-mongering and political blackmail to cling to power.

[2] What the DAP now asks of voters is that they forget Anwar’s broken promises, overlook the compromises and the shady deals, and forgive its own cowardly silence over three and a half years — and vote PH anyway. That is a very big ask.

[3] Remember, we are in this mess because of Anwar and the DAP. For the sake of power, Anwar broke faith with the very people who elected him — and threw Zahid a lifeline. Zahid was facing charges grave enough that a conviction would have ended his career and put him behind bars for years. Instead, all 47 charges were made to melt away: shelved by a discharge in 2023, then dropped altogether this January.

[4] Remember too that UMNO itself was all but finished — reduced to a mere 26 seats, the worst result in its history. Yet Anwar not only brought them back into government; he handed them more power than he gave his own coalition partners. Zahid, with those criminal charges still hanging over him, was made deputy prime minister. UMNO was rewarded with 14 ministerial posts, hundreds of GLC positions and thousands of ketua kampung appointments — the very platform from which it has engineered its comeback, and from which it now stands, once again, on the cusp of power.

[5] And what did the DAP do? Did it stand up to Anwar? Did it refuse to sit with UMNO? Did it oppose the discharge for Zahid and the rest? No. It was too pleased to be back in the cabinet, too comfortable with the perks and the privileges. It went along. Worse, it grew arrogant — talking of a “new relationship” with UMNO, savouring the prospect of decades in power alongside UMNO. Now that Zahid has turned on them, they come running to the electorate, wringing their hands about him. What they did was grotesque and unforgivable. They have condemned Malaysia to yet more years of UMNO rule. And they have the temerity to warn the electorate about Zahid becoming prime minister? The hypocrisy is breathtaking.

[6] Many pleaded with them not to bring Zahid into the cabinet. Many warned that he could not be trusted. But ambition triumphed over principle. So too with Najib. The DAP now warns that a BN vote could see Najib walk free — but who was double-dealing on the issue? Who justified the reduction of his sentence on the grounds of “service to the nation”? Where was the DAP then? They had every opportunity to stand against Anwar’s chicanery. They did not. And now they have the gall to sound the alarm on Zahid.

[7] Pua urges voters to back PH while, in the same breath, conceding they must still be pressed to deliver. They ignored the people’s mandate for three and a half years; there is no guarantee they will behave differently now. Non-Malay voters placed enormous hope in PH, and in the DAP. They did everything to put PH in power. They wanted PH to succeed. That faith was broken, and broken badly — and PH and the DAP must now answer for their perfidy.

[8] PH is finished. It had its chance. Its moment has passed. Zahid may well become prime minister, and it is too late now to stop him. We must look instead to the future, and to Bersama, for the change we still long for. It will take time — perhaps two election cycles, or more. UMNO will not change; it has learned nothing. The same compromised leaders will return to plunder and abuse. What we need is a strong opposition to hold them to account. Bersama can be at least a part of that force.

[9] Pua calls Bersama a “spoiler.” But it was not Bersama that spoiled the reform Malaysians voted for. The DAP did that itself — the day it chose the cabinet table over its own principles.

Dennis Ignatius  |  Kuala Lumpur  |  Saturday, 18 July 2026