Kit Siang, a man of the past versus the Malaysian reality
DAP veteran leader Lim Kit Siang has his head buried very much in the sands of time, according to Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim.
Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim, Malaysia Outlook
The Chinese have a proverb that goes something like this: ”It is better to light a candle than to curse at the darkness”.
The Chinese for all their faults and as a generalization are a very pragmatic and resourceful community wherever they are to be found. Not amongst the DAP in Malaysia it would seem though.
Lim Kit Siang is the longest known serving leader of any political party languishing in the wilderness without the slightest hint of government within his grasp.
Much of this, according to sources close to the man, is the result of his inability to achieve total dominance of the Malay peninsula and east Malaysia, something his party has aspired to.
It is a redundant dream he clings on to like that character of the jilted Ms. Faversham in Charles Dicken’s ‘Oliver Twist’.
Kit Siang is very much a man of the past. His admissions to failure could not be more stark and telling than his recent disastrous alliance with the much despised former Premier Mahathir Mohamed, who himself in an act of desperation moved on to then embrace his nemesis Anwar Ibrahim, further tainting Lim’s reputation through guilt by association.
Lim (and the DAP) must change direction. They must change or be white anted by their own weaknesses. The DAP is already showing signs of coming apart at the seams.
Like in a relationship gone wrong, Lim is the last one to know of the ‘infidelities’ and the undermining of his party by frustrated long serving and loyal members moving out.
Lim has his head buried very much in the sands of time. Unless of course Lim will dig deeply into his Chinese sense of pragmatism and resourcefulness to tap into reality, the DAP’s fortunes are but a foregone conclusion.
It is not as if the Chinese, even as Dapsters, cannot be more productive in Parliament or even in government.
But they are not there.
All they have to do is to come to the table with the government and negotiate (not demand).
After all if at the last general election they could mass migrate as Chinese to the opposition in the belief the opposition was about to win government only to be disappointed by a government victory, they can with their heads held high become a part of a new coalition with the government.
Inspite of the Chinese tsunami at the last general election, the government has not sidelined or punished the Chinese community.
They continue to prosper as they always have.
Mahathir has promised the DAP the moon and sixpence. It is a foregone conclusion Lim will not get the moon in the event of an unlikely Mahathir led victory.
He may have to settle for sixpence instead if there is any change left there, if it happens.
But sixpence buys very little these days.
Lim and the DAP must realize and come to terms with the futility of the decades long very personal, very destructive campaign run by their allies.
Bersih, the PKR, the Malaysian Bar and a host of other foreign funded so called NGO’s fighting the government have achieved nothing.
There are no rewards in losing. There is no utility in continuing to feed and maintain an army that can’t fight government- these are Lim’s allies.
If after 10 years of foreign funding and support his allies still can’t get it right, they are unlikely to ever get it right.
The DAP needs to move on and find greener pastures.
If however, the DAP were to negotiate with government for an accommodation before the next general election in order to, at the very least ensure the prosperity of all communities and assure the political and interracial stability of Malaysia, there could well be a very sympathetic hearing that awaits them in Putrajaya.
Lim’s party and his constituents will be the beneficiaries. The nation will benefit from it as a whole.
Sniping from the sidelines with no costed policies in place or any real alternatives to government is not what anyone least of all the Chinese want.
Neither side should see negotiation as a sign of weakness or ‘loss of face’.
It is a strategy only the intelligent engage in. One side has a lot to lose by not being bold enough to take the initiative to negotiate and to do so in confidence.
