Uneasy times for DAP

Baradan Kuppusamy, The Star

Trouble is brewing in the DAP on several fronts – in Johor, Kedah, Sabah and Malacca and even in Perak – as the party prepares to hold state elections in December where opportunities arise for the central leadership to engineer the replacement of state leaders seen as recalcitrant.

This move to exert greater central control is causing friction with the respective state leaders who have become used to the leeway they always have to administer their respective states.

“It’s a question of control by the central leadership or the continued independence of state warlords,” said a former state chairman.

“As state chairmen we always had greater control and say over our affairs….while we pay obeisance to central leaders when they visit our states but we are the authority in our states,” he said.

“But now all that is changing, central leadership is exerting greater control. They are deciding what we do and say and who we promote,” he said adding that a “new order” is taking shape.

“In this new order we are all factotums to a central leader and his group of loyalists,” said the veteran leader, adding the “new order” is like a business corporation where state warlords have lost their powers.
 
“State warlords who are used to independence are naturally resisting.”

This is the crux of the disputes – some of the more exertive CEM members want the state DAPs to toe the central leadership line while the state DAPs want a hands-off policy in state matters with ample decentralisation.

And tied to the issue of centralisation versus de-centralisation is the standing of some state warlords that have undergone major changes since the May 5 general election.

They fear that their hold on to their respective states have eroded as a result of the changes, and the central leadership, by being exertive, is challenging their position.

In Johor, its chairman Dr Boo Cheng Hau is under attack from several leaders loyal to secretary general Lim Guan Eng for suggesting that a three-man independent panel under party veteran Dr Chen Man Hin be formed to resolve the Kedah crisis.

In Sabah, the party has lost its Luyang assemblyman Hiew King Cheu, who has turned independent after his support for Datuk Wilfred Bumburing as state opposition leader was rejected by other DAP assemblymen.

In Kedah, state chairman Lee Guan Aik, who was not fielded in the May 5 general election, is hopping mad over the CEC takeover of the state DAP saying it was dictatorial because the state committee had been democratically elected.

In Malacca, a longstanding feud between Lim, a former Malacca DAP leader before becoming secretary general and Penang chief minister, and state leaders erupted into a full blown crisis after state chief Goh Leong San quit as state opposition leader, threatening to open the “Pandora’s box”.

His deputy, Lim Jak Wong, joined him and quit as deputy opposition leader.

In Perak, another long-standing feud again erupted between proxies of Ipoh Barat MP M. Kulasegaran and state chairman Ngeh Koo Ham and secretary Nga Kor Ming with a DAP member’s Facebook posting alleging the cousins were “lining their pockets.”

Nga denied the allegations but the political damage was done.

Dr Boo had also questioned party policies like the Malaysian Dream movement and other policies and had skipped a meeting with Guan Eng and others in Sungei Renggam, Johor, on Saturday night to discuss his grouses.

A text message that he had a “throbbing headache” was sent to Guan Eng.

Clearly Dr Boo was unhappy with the recent developments in the party, especially the central leadership takeover of the Kedah state committee and he fears that the same could happen in Johor.

“His position as Johor DAP chairman is now at risk,” said a DAP veteran branch secretary adding if it can happen in Kedah it can happen to other states as well.

In Kedah, the CEC suspended the state committee and appointed Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari as caretaker Kedah chairman replacing a democratically-elected committee, as was said by the former chairman Lee Guan Aik.

While some in the DAP see Dr Boo’s suggestion to form an independent panel as a rebellion against the central leadership, Dr Boo’s supporters said he was merely suggesting a better mechanism to resolve the Kedah crisis.

“The era of state warlords is over,” said another member who is a supporter of the central leadership. 

“We have to work as a team and ensure that the team comes out tops… not the individual. This is the corporate culture the world over,” he said.

He said this is also what the delegates want and as proof pointed to the recent CEC election on Sept 29 where all the state warlords were either at the bottom of the list or were defeated.

The rise in infighting between state leaders and central leadership is also a sign that the party was in a quandary, political analysts said.

“The DAP is a political success but it has big problems managing success especially the rise of young professionals and their movement to occupy important party posts,” said a political veteran.

“This has upset the old guards like Dr Boo who was used to having his way in Johor,” he said.

The same kind of dynamics is taking place in other states where the old guard has to deal with the young Turks, causing uneasiness in Kedah, Johor and Malacca and elsewhere.