Whither the Malays in DAP?
The DAP is fated to be a Chinese-majority party with a significant Indian majority and a sprinkling of Malays and indigenous east Malaysians. The Malays, in particular, stand out like a sore thumb.
ONE swallow does not make a summer and, similarly, Zairil Khir Johari’s victory in the elections of the DAP central executive committee (CEC) on Sunday does not mean Malay candidates have finally found acceptance in the Chinese-dominated party.
The election of the Bukit Bendera MP simply means the delegates at the special congress have harkened to whispered advice from their revered leaders to return a Malay to the CEC to give the party a multi-racial flavour. There were other Malays in the contest but all of them failed to make the cut.
But Zairil is different. Besides being an MP, he had the endorsement of the most powerful men in the party – DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang and his son, secretary-general Lim Guan Eng – and, thus, the rest of the party.
The controversies that surrounded the CEC election last December had been a great help for Zairil in Sunday’s fresh polls as it had put the spotlight on him. After the Registrar of Societies (RoS) nullified the Dec 15 polls, the attention turned to whether he would get elected or be left out a second time around.
The party had elected Malay leaders before but it remained largely Chinese, with a minority of Indians and indigenous east Malaysians.
Among the prominent Malays who had emerged in the DAP was the late Ahmad Nor, who was elected a CEC member and repeatedly made vice-chairman in the 1990s.
Another was Tunku Abdul Aziz Ibrahim, who was made senator and had everything going for him until his fallout with Guan Eng over the Bersih electoral protest, ahead of the May 5 general election.
Tunku Aziz did not agree and resigned.
Yet another former vice-chairman is Zulkifli Mohd Noor. He went into the fray on Sunday, announcing earlier he was contesting to be made party chairman.
He had wanted to see transparency and to ensure the DAP’s multi-racial outlook and its Malaysian Malaysia ideology remain intact.
But the veteran, who has been with the party for 26 years, failed in his bid.
The fact remains that the largely Chinese DAP delegates are uncomfortable with having Malays as leaders, with the exception of a few people like Ahmad Nor who had earned their respect through his long association with Kit Siang and the DAP.
While delegates from the big cities can get along with the Malays, the small towners still fight shy of them.
The Indian minority in the DAP, on the other hand, are a different kettle of fish as they have a long association with the party with former luminaries like Devan Nair and V. David.
In addition, the Indians can sit at the same table with the Chinese delegates, even speak one or two Chinese dialects and can easily get into the DAP culture. But the Malays in the DAP stand out like a sore thumb.
Somehow, the DAP people seem to see Malays as being allied with Umno.
Perhaps, the Islamisation of the country over the past five decades is also a primary cause of the uneasiness of the Chinese to acc*ept the Malays in large numbers or to be leaders in the party. The DAP is, therefore, fated to be a Chinese-majority party with a significant Indian minority and a sprinkling of Malays and east Malaysians. Meanwhile, the election threw up a few surprises.
Political education director and Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong jumped from 14th position and beat everyone to the front, while his boss Guan Eng slid to fifth position from the second spot.
The other surprise was Nga Kor Ming who joined his cousin Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham at the bottom of the elected list while their nemesis, Ipoh Barat MP M. Kulasegaran, maintained his ranking at No. 15.
