An undemocratic action by the Democratic Action Party?

By admin-s Last updated Sep 24, 2024

Although they were only voting for places on the committee, it was quite clear to the ordinary onlooker that most of the 1,466 delegates representing the state’s 296 branches wanted Ramkarpal as their state leader.

Ibrahim M Ahmad, FMT

Have the newly elected leaders of Penang DAP acted according to their mandate in naming Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim as the party’s new Penang chairman?

That is the question many are asking after they overlooked Bukit Gelugor MP Ramkarpal Singh for the state chapter’s top post.

After all, Ramkarpal came out tops among the 31 candidates who vied for 15 spots on the party’s 2024/2027 state committee on Sunday.

Ramkarpal, a former deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, secured 1,247 votes, 10 more than Sim, the current human resources minister, who took second place. Is it any wonder then that he was not smiling in the photograph that accompanied FMT’s report last night?

With 827 votes, Tanjong MP Lim Hui Ying, daughter of party veteran Lim Kit Siang and sister of national chairman Lim Guan Eng, placed a lowly 12th but still took the number three post as the committee’s secretary.

To the man on the street, Sim’s claim last night that the committee represented a unity leadership was quite laughable. Perhaps, it was even an implicit confession.

A unity leadership is one cobbled together when there is no clear mandate from voters. The current unity government at the federal level is one such example.

That cannot be said to have been the case here.

So, on what grounds did the newly elected committee members cast him aside?

Was it on the grounds of incompetence or was it because he was of dubious character? The 1,247 party delegates did not think so. Was it on the grounds of his race?

Clearly, he was not the anointed one. Sim has long been touted as Guan Eng’s pick to be a future Penang chief minister.

On Friday, he was named by party secretary-general Loke Siew Fook as one half of a dream pairing that was supposed to unite Penang, with Hui Ying identified as his lieutenant.

As veteran journalist Terence Netto wrote yesterday, it was an attempt at “guided democracy”. Clearly, party delegates had other ideas.

Rumour has it that, in the lead up to the election, Ramkarpal had the support of outgoing chairman Chow Kon Yeow, who himself has not had it easy recently, having had to fight multiple in-party battles both behind closed doors and in public over the last two years.

And what about Hui Ying’s retention as the committee’s secretary after only managing to pull in 827 votes?

How does the newly elected leadership justify ignoring her low placing to appoint her to the number three position in the party’s state chapter? Yes, she has had job experience, but that did not seem to account for much among the voting delegates.

To those of us on the outside, her low standing suggests that she is not highly regarded even among her comrades in Penang DAP. That would make her position as deputy finance minister in the federal Cabinet seem unmerited as well.

If nothing else, Sunday’s results show Penang DAP to be hopelessly split down the middle.

The outcome does not augur well for the party, not just at state level but also at the national level. After all, the Penang state administration, now well into its fourth term in office, has long been touted as the jewel in DAP’s crown.

The formation of Penang DAP’s new leadership may well have been in full compliance with its constitution, but it does not appear to reflect the will of the grassroots, and by extension, the majority of Penangites who put the party into power.

To us on the outside, the Democratic Action Party appears to have taken undemocratic action.

Considering its rich history and how it has endeared itself to Malaysians over the years, that is a real shame.

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