http://melvintansg.blogspot.com/2008/10/wp-members-visit-dap-hq-and-malaysia.html
A handful of Workers' Party members including myself embarked on a study visit to Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya, Selangor between 11 and 13 October 2008 and to meet with members of our Malaysia opposition counterpart, the Democratic Action Party.
This is the second trip by the same group across the Causeway this year following the last visit to Penang during the Malaysia general election in March 2008 where we followed the DAP on its campaign trail in Pulau Pinang, although there was a slight composition change.
Initially planned for next year, we decided to go there earlier due to being informed by our main host Loke Siew Fook, DAP Member of Parliament for Rasah, State Assemblyman for Lobak (Negeri Sembilan) and DAP Socialist Youth Secretary, that the Malaysia Budget Debate would commence on 13 October 2008.
The DAP, a reform of the defunct Malaysia extension of Singapore's ruling People's Action Party in 1966, made a breakthrough in that GE, winning the highest 28 seats it has bagged to date in the Dewan Rakyat and, combined with the Parti Keadilan Rakyat and the Parti Islam SeMalaysia, holds 82 out of 222 seats under the three-party Pakatan Rakyat opposition alliance.
We were also informed of an invitation to a Hari Raya open house on 12 October 2008 hosted by opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who heads the PR alliance and the PKR and was a former deputy prime minister of Malaysia under the ruling Barisan Nasional government.
The group arrived in the evening on the first day and there was little time for anything else apart from checking-in and dinner.
In the morning of the second day, we went to Kelab Sultan Sulaiman at Kampung Baru, KL where the open house was and met with Mr Anwar and his wife, Dr Wan Azizah Ismail, who were greeting arriving guests at the entrance.
The politician pair was a warm, mild-mannered and pleasant couple, quite unlike the firebrands portrayed in various media; one of our members expressed appreciation for Mr Anwar's visit to the wake of Singapore's late opposition leader J B Jeyaretnam.
Outside at the backyard where a large tent was erected to host another function, I spotted Selangor chief minister, PKR stalwart and former corporate guru Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim but had no opportunity to approach him as the function was for different guests.
Later, Mr Loke introduced us to DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and his father Lim Kit Siang, the DAP's Parliamentary Leader, who were seated at a table in a VIP room; the younger Mr Lim was especially friendly and broke ice quickly with his sense of humour.
Also present at the same table were DAP leaders Fong Kui Lun, MP for Bukit Bintang, Tony Pua, MP for Petaling Jaya Utara (both in Selangor) and Teresa Kok, MP for Seputeh (KL) who was in the news in September 2008 for her incarceration under the Internal Security Act for a week and subsequently released.
Another WP member expressed support and sympathy over the trials recently suffered by Ms Kok, who reciprocated the gesture and also mentioned the passing of Mr Jeyaretnam as a loss to the Singapore opposition.
By the afternoon, the group headed for the DAP headquarters in Paramount Garden, PJ; there was a little incident when we arrived at the wrong place, which was their older office that had now been converted to a storage hub but thankfully, Mr Loke had anticipated this and took the trouble to locate us at the wrong venue.
At the DAP headquarters, State Assemblyman for Bahau (Negeri Sembilan) Teo Kok Seong and other members of the DAP were there to receive us and after the customary introductions, Mr Loke showed us around their headquarters - a stylish but non-extravagant two-storey building.
Following that, members of our two political parties sat down in a conference room for interesting and lively discussions and exchanging information on the political situation on each other's countries.
We also learned that the DAP had not maintained contact with the PAP ever since Singapore's separation from the Federation of Malaysia but the Penang DAP state government desired to engage the Singapore PAP government for economic purposes, something our group members felt was pragmatically-speaking a good idea.
On the third day, we visited the Malaysia Parliament and accessed the public gallery in time to witness Mr Anwar deliver his speech for the first time since eviction from office in 1998, this time as an opposition MP but in his same old seat of Permatang Pauh (Penang), which was held by Dr Azizah during his ostracise.
What raised our eyebrows was that one side of the chamber was about 80% empty while on the other, 90% full, and this created was a demarcation that allowed us to distinguish between seats belonging to BN and those to PR; for some reason, a large number of BN MPs were notably absent.
In addition, the front benches of the sparsely occupied section, presumably accommodating ministers of the government cabinet, were empty and both PM Abdullah Badawi and DPM Najip Tun Razak were also missing in action.
Mr Anwar took up most the speech time with the elder Mr Lim intercepting every now and then and they could be easily mistaken as the PM and DPM or PM and opposition leader respectively.
A practice not seen in the Singapore Parliament was that every time Mr Anwar completed a few sentences with a high crescendo, PR MPs would tap the table rapidly a few times and during once when a BN MP rose to speak, the BN MPs did the same; this, we later discovered, was a form of clapping, although in Singapore the opposition MPs would not have the critical mass to put on such displays of support.
Due to the lopsided attendance, the PR side produced thunderous tapping sounds in contrast to the BN taps that were like "droppings" and one could surmise that this was probably the first time in Malaysia history that government MPs were outnumbered by opposition MPs.
Finally, we left the place and prepared ourselves to head back to Singapore; for us in WP, the entire expedition proved to be both fruitful and insightful and we looked forward to return again.
