Cyrix’s Codex

I’ve just read johnleemk and rajan’s comment regarding my posting on PKR’s strategy, and I felt that I would like to reply to their remarks on DAP in a new post here

Democratic Action Party (DAP)’s logo

I just want to say that I disagree with his views on DAP though. I feel that DAP don’t deserve a lot of the harsh criticism that it regularly gets from the public and opposing parties alike. DAP was actually the first party which I was attracted to, due to it’s noble multiracial ‘Malaysian Malaysia’ ideology. And socialism? I think they’re more of a social democrat party than anything else. When have you ever heared Lim Kit Siang or Karpal Singh sprout socialist economic policies before? DAP, IMO, is actually by far the most ‘morally rightous’ party in Malaysia. It’s the only party with a minority (Indian - Karpal Singh) as it’s chairman. It has the highest porportion of elected women MPs out of all the parties in parliament. And amidst all the accusations directed towards it for it’s perceived ‘Chinese chauvinistic’ attitude, the reality shows a different picture:

DAP, unlike MCA, doesn’t restrict membership to solely Chinese-Malaysians. If our Malay brethrens were really interested in DAP’s ideals, nothing’s stopping them from joining up en mass, and by virtue of them being the majority (we’re living in a democracy after all), they could then easily amend any undesirable elements they preceive that are dogging the party to make it more electable to the Malay majority. The ultra-Chinese faction could easily be ousted by them to maintain DAP’s moderate political outlook if they really wanted to. Anyway, back to DAP’s leadership structure. It willingly voted for the legal maestro Karpal Singh to be it’s leader, for Pete’s sake! In addition to that, it also counts amongst it ranks other notable non-Chinese members, such as the new member, Professor P. Ramasamy, the vocal M. Kula Segaran (MP - Ipoh Barat), as well as Zulkifli Mohd Noor in Penang.

And last but not least, let’s not forget many of the DAP member’s courageous sacrifices, all in the name of justice, equality and fairness. Lim Kit Siang was imprisoned twice under the ISA for his beliefs. His son, Lim Guan Eng, willingly went to prison, after he helped raised the case of the alleged rape (which was cleared by the courts) of a poor and troubled young Malay girl by a prominent UMNO politician, after her grandmother approched him for help. I don’t see any Chinese-centric agenda in action here. Do you? What do any of the DAP members stand to gain from their sacrifices, apart from upholding justice and defending the underprivilleged?

And lastly, Rajan, wealthy Chinese businessmen don’t go for DAP laa They head in droves to the in-power laissez-faire MCA lah. What can DAP possibly offer to them, considering they’re in opposition?