- veteran DAP leaders concerns about “deep state” within party
- led by younger party members aiming to unseat key senior leaders
- Comparisons to 1990s “Kick Out Kit Siang” (KOKS) campaign
- no attention being paid to how senior leaders marginalized younger leaders
- survival of many senior leaders depended on political purges over the years
- last general election, senior Indian leader purged from contesting
- prior to 2003 state elections, several outspoken Indian leaders removed
- Could these actions be considered the work of the “deep state”?
- no one used such terminology when senior leaders marginalized others
- DAP no stranger to generational conflicts and power struggles
- Is it acceptable to employ undemocratic measures to sideline opponents ?
- Opposition to family-based factions has simmered for years
- now a more prominent source of internal conflict
- Nepotism, cronyism among senior party leaders cannot be defended
- grievances fueling frustrations among the younger leaders
- factional conflicts influenced by differing attitudes toward Malay hegemony
- Senior leaders more aggressive
- younger leaders more willing to adapt (OSTB : More lembik)
- younger leaders have abandoned “Malaysian Malaysia”
- party elections in March
- “do or die” struggle between generations
- DAP begun to resemble MCA
- future direction of the DAP remains uncertain.
- P. Ramasamy
My Comments :
Some time in 2008 I attended a DAP victory dinner after an election victory in Klang. This was during the Badawi regime. I went with Raja Petra and we were hosted by Ronnie Liu. In 2008 DAP had won Penang, Selangor and Perak - a major feat.
At that time PAS was with DAP. So the Pas fellows were present. There were scantily clad girls singing and dancing on stage which the Pas fellows did not seem to mind at all.
Then there were speeches and singing DAP fight songs. Then there was this issuing of certificates to new DAP branches. Setting up a new DAP branch was quite 'exclusive'. The party has a strict vetting system before a new branch can be set up. (Unlike UMNO where we organised ourselves and simply set up a new branch and informed the State HQ and we became another cawangan Umno).
But I noticed that the new DAP branches being set up were populated by trades people - contractors, small businesses etc. (some of them appeared onstage). Of course this is quite normal because the Chinese community is almost 100% self employed. They are the businessmen and the trades people.
Ten years later in 2018 the DAP took over the federal government. They lost it in 2020 but came back in 2022. And 17 years later they still have Penang and Selangor. Since 2022, in Perak and Pahang there can be no state government without cooperation between UMNO and the DAP. So the DAP is now a mega player in how the country is being run.
In the 17 years that the DAP has been in power in Selangor (plus now holding five of 11? Parliamentary seats in Kuala Lumpur) KL is now said to have the FOURTH HIGHEST NUMBER of the world's tallest buildings.
Malaysia currently holds the fourth position globally in terms of the number of skyscrapers, with a significant number of tall buildings within its borders, particularly concentrated in Kuala Lumpur. Source: Information based on data from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH)
My comments : The perjuangan can get lost among all these skyscrapers.
