DAP tiada hala tuju: the tale of the directionless DAP
So, Muhyiddin is not the backdoor prime minister or Perikatan Nasional the backdoor government. Muhyiddin came in through the front door, as did Perikatan Nasional. And all this would not have happened unless Mahathir wanted it to happen. And Mahathir wanted it to happen to kill off Anwar Ibrahim and DAP once and for all. And Mahathir is not called marah nyamuk bakar kelambu for nothing.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
This is what the Democratic Action Party or DAP says about itself.
“The party’s vision is to establish a peaceful and prosperous social democracy that can unite its disparate races and diverse religions and cultures, based on the Malaysian Malaysia concept of forging a Malaysian race grounded on universal moral values, offering equal access and opportunity, upholding democratic governance and the rule of law, creating wealth and distributing it equitably, and fighting corruption.”
Yes, DAP tries to give an impression that the party upholds certain noble values and principles. However, a study of DAP’s history plus the reason for its existence would reveal that what it says and what it does are exact opposites.
Devan Nair, onetime President of Singapore, founded DAP as the Malaysian arm of Singapore’s PAP
DAP was founded after Singapore split from Malaysia on 9th August 1965 and Singapore’s PAP (The People’s Action Party) was banned from operating in Malaysia. Two months later, on 11th October 1965, former members of the deregistered People’s Action Party of Malaysia — such as Bangsar Member of Parliament Devan Nair (who later became the President of Singapore) — got together to form DAP.
Lim Kit Siang, who was working in Singapore as an aide to Lee Kuan Yew, was sent back to Kuala Lumpur to assist Devan Nair in managing the affairs of the Malaysian branch of Singapore’s PAP. Rahsia ini ramai orang Melayu tidak tahu.
In its first outing in the 1969 general election, DAP won 13 of the parliament seats against 286,606 of the popular votes. PAS, which garnered 495,641 votes, won only 12 seats. That was because DAP won in the heavily populated Chinese areas whereas PAS won in the less densely populated Malay heartland.
And yet DAP says the electoral system is not fair to the Chinese.
Lee Kuan Yew sent Lim Kit Siang back to Kuala Lumpur to manage the affairs of DAP
In the 1974 general election, DAP’s parliament seats dropped to just nine against 387,845 of the popular votes. In the 1978 general election, DAP’s seats increased to 16. In the 1982 general election, it dropped back to nine. In the 1986 general election, it shot up to 24 with almost one million popular votes.
The 1986 general election was the best DAP ever did in 21 years. However, it was clear that on its own DAP will always remain an opposition party and can never become a government. To become a government, DAP will need to seek Malay partners, just like Barisan Nasional and the Alliance Party before that.
So, in the 1990 general election, DAP teamed up with Semangat 46 and PBS in Sabah. DAP won 20 parliament seats, Semangat 46 won eight and PBS won 14, a total of just 42. Even if you add the seven PAS seats, the total is still just 49, not enough to form the government against Barisan Nasional’s 127 seats, 71 of which are Umno seats. Out of the 180 parliament seats (in 1990), the Malays “owned” about half with another 45 from East Malaysia. Hence the Malays and Bumiputera jointly control about 70% or so of the parliament seats, not good news for a Chinese party like DAP.
When the Mahathir-Anwar crisis erupted in 1998, DAP saw this as their backdoor to federal power. But they will first need to set aside their 33 years of hatred for Umno and PAS and forge an alliance with the Malay nationalists and Islamists. DAP has to bury their so-called “noble values and principles” for the sake of power.
DAP buried its hatred for Mahathir when they realised the old man could be their ticket to Putrajaya
In the 1999 general election, the new alliance called Barisan Alternatif won only 42 or 22% of the seats. However, two states, Kelantan and Terengganu, fell into the hands of PAS, which did not benefit DAP one bit. To make matters worse, Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh lost their seats.
So, in 2001, DAP left the Barisan Alternatif coalition and in the 2004 general election decided to go solo. But DAP won only 12 seats while Barisan Nasional won 90.41% of the seats, a disaster for the opposition. It was clear that the only way DAP can make progress would be in a coalition with Malay parties.
After the 2008 general election, DAP once again forged an alliance with the Malays, which they called Pakatan Rakyat. The opposition parties had won 82 or 37% of the seats in that election — and 89 or 40% of the seats in the general election following that in 2013.
It appeared like DAP would never fulfil its dream of becoming the federal government — until Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad turned on Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak in 2014. DAP saw that Mahathir was going to be its ticket to federal power. So, DAP buried its hatred for Mahathir and adopted him as the Chinese mascot. They would bleed Mahathir for every pint of blood they could squeeze from him. Then they would discard him once they are in Putrajaya.
Muhyiddin Yassin is Mahathir’s defence against a DAP-backed Anwar Ibrahim taking over as PM8
Since the day Pakatan Harapan formed the federal government on 10th May 2018, DAP had only one objective in mind. And that was to make sure that Mahathir retires and hands power to Anwar Ibrahim on or before 10th May 2020.
When it appeared that Mahathir would not retire and hand power to Anwar on or before 10th May 2020 after all, DAP tried to push Mahathir out by force. And that resulted in the collapse of the entire government. DAP did not anticipate that Mahathir would rather collapse the government and allow Muhyiddin Yassin to take over than allow Anwar to take over as PM8.
So, Muhyiddin is not the backdoor prime minister or Perikatan Nasional the backdoor government. Muhyiddin came in through the front door, as did Perikatan Nasional. And all this would not have happened unless Mahathir wanted it to happen. And Mahathir wanted it to happen to kill off Anwar Ibrahim and DAP once and for all. And Mahathir is not called marah nyamuk bakar kelambu for nothing.
