DAP will recover from resignation blow, say analysts

(The Sun Daily) – DAP will be able to recover from the blow it suffered when four of its Malacca elected representatives quit the party on Sunday, say two political analysts.

University of Tasmania’s Asia Institute Tasmania director Professor James Chin said the “DAP brand” is a strong one among the Chinese and he foresaw no problems at the national level.

“It will not have an impact on nationwide Chinese votes for DAP,” he told theSun via email.

USM Political Sociology Professor Sivamurugan Pandian said the resignations was a state matter and would not impact national politics.

He said the ripples from the resignation will be felt nationally if more DAP leaders mirrored the concerns and criticisms voiced by the four who left.

“But I do not see it happening at the top level of the party,” he told theSun today, referring to the DAP Central Executive Committee (CEC), the party’s highest decision-making body.

Both, however, cautioned the aftershocks would impact Malacca politics with Sivamurugan pointing out that the four had supporters too.

“I believe there will be an effect in Malacca as this involved not only one leader but three others, to what extent the CEC is able to consolidate and check the fallout will be its challenge,” said Sivamurugan.

Chin said the resignations were due to internal discord in the Malacca DAP, which he said was “a long time coming” and traced it back to the power struggles in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

On whether the resignations were a blessing in disguise, Sivamurugan said the DAP would not want leaders who were not on the same page as its top leadership while Chin felt it depended on who was doing the perceiving.

“If you are part of the DAP leadership, of course that would be a good thing. But if you are from the group that resigned, then it shows the inability of DAP to accept dissent,” he added.