KUCHING: DAP is basically declaring itself as a Chinese party in Sarawak after Dr John Brian Anthony is not re-elected as the DAP national central executive committee (CEC) during the recent 17th national congress, a political scientist says.
Prof Datuk Dr Jayum Jawan of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) said being a Chinese party in Sarawak, DAP was expected to be wiped out by Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) and Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) in the next general election.
He said the Chinese voters in Sarawak have already shown comfort with SUPP and GPS ruling coalition, hence, they do not have any reason to rock the boat but to let the boat sail and see how far they can go with the new leadership under Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian, who has been elevated to Deputy Premier.
“They are now giving the support to GPS and the ‘renewed’ SUPP under newly minted Deputy Premier Sim.”
“So, DAP, the next round, be prepared to be washed out by GPS and SUPP in Sarawak,” he told New Sarawak Tribune.
Jayum said Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition would not have a higher winning chance even if all the parties contest under a common logo in order to win in the 15th General Election, especially in Sarawak.
He said this was because the real issue was that PKR, DAP and Amanah lacked a common direction, thus, using a common logo will not help to band them together.
“PKR is a multi-ethnic party that is leaning on and relying on Malays support that is hard to come by; DAP is a Chinese party that is trying to portray a multi-ethnic image without much success; and Amanah is a PAS breakaway led by former PAS strong personality in the person of (Amanah president Mohamad Sabu) Mat Sabu,” he said.
“The three parties represent different ideologies and approaches in politics. Wearing the same color shirt or brandishing a common flag would not fool the people, only themselves,” he said.
Jayum was commenting on DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng’s recent remark that the PH coalition must under a common logo as history has shown that coalition parties have a higher chance of achieving victory through such an approach.
Lim said while DAP is tempted to use the rocket logo, it would stick to the coalition logo of PH to help the PH parties win together. He said PH must show it is united and move as a team while a common logo in PH would help to demonstrate that unity of purpose.
Jayum said DAP promised too much in the last general election because it was a die or do thing with the opposition pact. They had least expected to make an impact much less to win and form the ruling government at the national or federal level in 2018.
“Thus, when they took over the reign of power, they were ill-equipped to deliver what they had promised.
“In the process they keep referring to the fact that they were in power only a short time while a ruling party that they replaced had been running the country for the last half a decade. The people are simply not interested in such excuses.”
He said DAP continues to be a family dynasty despite DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang announcing his retirement from politics.
“He (Kit Siang) is still the mentor, and his son (Guan Eng) is now the party chairman while many senior party members are also his close confidante. So, nothing has changed actually,” he said.
“DAP needs to be true to itself. It is a Chinese party where about 35 of its officers for the next term comprises about 75 per cent or 26 of them are of Chinese background, 14 per cent Indian (5), about eight per cent Malay (3) and about three percent or one officer from Sabah ethnic.”
“Thus, DAP needs to do more reformation to be accepted by Malaysians, including the Sarawakians,” he added.
DAP was almost ‘totally wiped out’ in 12th Sarawak election in December last year, after the party lost five seats and lost five seats to SUPP. DAP only won Pending and Padungan.
