The rise of Pakatan’s third-liners
Sheridan Mahavera, The Malaysian Insider
Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud did not win the Teluk Intan by-election last night but she still followed in the footsteps of her party’s elders while at the same time breaking from some of its traditions.
Like her boss, Lim Kit Siang, Dyana Sofya is making her first attempt at elected office in her mid-20s. Lim who is now 73, was 28 when he was first elected in 1969 for the parliamentary seat of Bandar Melaka.
Unlike Lim and many of the DAP’s leading lights such as Lim Guan Eng, Anthony Loke and Liew Chin Thong, Dyana Sofya is not from the Chinese working and middle classes that the party draws its support and members from.
The former UiTM law graduate represents a growing number of Malay-Muslim youths who are joining the DAP and who are making up an important third-line of members and leaders that are different from their elders.
But they and the DAP are not alone. Across Pakatan Rakyat (PR), a new generation of youth are forming a crucial third vanguard in PAS and PKR as their parties’ second-line move into more senior positions.
These sons and daughters of the post-Merdeka generation are already making an impact in PKR, PAS and DAP as the coalition marches to Putrajaya in the 14th general election.
But because they became politically conscious in a different era than their elders, these third-liners are taking their parties in new and unexpected directions.
While some are helping to make their party more inclusive and mainstream, others are helping steer their party to its more radical fringe.
As their voices become more influential, the third-liners in PR could work together to drive their coalition forward to become a viable alternative to Barisan Nasional (BN).
Legacies
Understanding how opposition politics evolved in the past 30 years is important to understanding the unique mentality of PR’s third-liners and how they differ from their elders.
Back when there was no internet but the Internal Security Act (ISA), there was a price to pay for being in a non-BN friendly party.
According to the DAP Political Education director Liew Chin Tong (pic), older, more established people did not want a career in opposition politics because of the risks involved.
One such risk was being detained under the ISA, which happened to social justice activists, labour leaders and non-BN politicians in 1987.
This was an experience shared by DAP and PAS’s second-liners. People like Guan Eng, Mohamad Sabu, Khalid Samad and Karpal Singh forged ties while they were detained under the ISA.
By stifling the media, the ruling BN also had a strangle-hold on public opinion.
It was between the 1980s to 1999 that the belief that DAP was anti-Malay and anti-Muslim, and that PAS was anti-non-Muslim was entrenched in the public mind.
