As far as I can remember, my late father has been voting for DAP every time the country had general elections. I personally was attracted to them not only for their mission to see a fair nation for all but also to YB Lim Kit Siang who was probably one of the first politicians to embrace the new school of using blogs and social media to share his political thoughts. Image source: Free Malaysia Today
Read these first:-
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- General Elections 2022: Some Quick Updates On Pakatan Harapan’s Strong Candidates
- Elections 101: Can Pakatan Harapan Attract Young Dynamic UNDI18 Voters?
- Crime 101: Court Of Appeal & Najib’s Case – Failure of Check & Balance System
- Governance 101: Please Enforce Timah Intelligence Benchmark for Local Politicians
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There are a lot of people who are confused between communism and socialism and thus wrongly label DAP as a communist party which is not true as DAP actually is a social democratic political party where the government is regulated by democratic citizen participation. In the end, it strives to achieve equal distribution of wealth and other social reforms through democratic processes within a free market capitalist economy.
Allegations Against DAP
It is unfortunate that DAP is still the BN & PAS’ favourite bogeyman despite their merits evident from their governance of the state of Penang and their stint during the Pakatan Harapan Federal government in 2018. And yet, there has not been any letdown of these cheap, smear campaigns against them, especially with the general elections around the corner.
“Even though Harapan’s (Ayer Hitam candidate) is a Malay, behind him is DAP.
“One vote for Harapan is one vote for DAP. Don’t fall for their trap. To stop DAP’s rise we must defeat Harapan candidates everywhere.”
Ismail Sabri said all must remember that when Harapan was in government, even though the prime minister – Dr Mahathir Mohamad – was from Bersatu, DAP was the one in power.
(Source: Malaysiakini)
It is rather ridiculous to say that DAP was in power when Dr. Mahathir was in power when everyone knows that Dr. Mahathir was really in power despite his faction holding the smallest percentage of the seats.
Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim sought to allay concerns today that DAP would be in control of the coalition were it to win the 15th general election.
The PKR president insisted that concern was not valid as DAP has consistently demonstrated its commitment and loyalty to the coalition.
“When I came to the programme today, I was asked if I could give the assurance that DAP will not be ruling the coalition if PH wins the election.
(Source: Malay Mail)
And it gets worse with the PAS’ Hadi Awang’s illogical allegations that DAP is a communist and had deployed communism in their governance, especially in Penang:-
PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang said he will not apologise or retract his provocative claims that the DAP is a communist party, Berita Harian reported today.
The Islamist politician who is being investigated by the police added that he has proof to support his assertion and will produce it in court.
He reportedly said that it was good that the DAP had filed a police complaint against him so he could respond formally to the allegations that he is racist and had made defamatory remarks against the Pakatan Harapan (PH) component party.
(Source: MalayMail)
PAS is known for losing a good number of court cases related to defamation and slanders in the past and this should be another where they will lose another case. Pakatan Harapan should persist with the legal action and should not accept any post-election apology or out-of-court settlements. Yet, the attack continues with this bizarre twist:-
That coalition, he suggested before a few hundred supporters here, will likely be Pakatan Harapan.
Muhyiddin then said voting for BN would by default be a vote for the DAP, a party the Bersatu president has accused of being anti-Malay.
(Source: Malay Mail)
How in the hell a vote for BN will go in favor of the DAP? And why DAP and not Pakatan Harapan? Another allegation without any logic?
PAS President insists that DAP is communist and he says that he has concrete proof but interestingly he has remained silent to the open support from MCA & Gerakan for Chin Peng’s ashes to be brought to Malaysia for the funeral and their criticism on the police raid on a coffee shop that had this Chairman Mao themed wallpaper. Image source: Malaysiakini
DAP Seat Numbers
The big question is can DAP really be so powerful that they can dictate the action of others in Pakatan Harapan? Let’s look at the numbers for GE15.
Pakatan is running for all 165 parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia for the upcoming general elections. Let’s not include the Pakatan Harapan seats in Sabah & Sarawak as the opposition party there has a different mission & strategy.
The breakdown of the seats and the number of voters that they will face is as follows:-
PH PARTIES | NO OF SEATS | % | TOTAL VOTERS | % |
---|---|---|---|---|
AMANAH | 46 | 27.88 | 4,457,549 | 25.48 |
PKR | 74 | 44.85 | 8,113,045 | 46.37 |
DAP | 40 | 24.24 | 4,572,046 | 26.13 |
MUDA | 5 | 3.03 | 354,053 | 2.024 |
TOTAL | 165 | 100.00 | 17,496,693 | 100.00 |
Out of the 165 seats, DAP is contesting only 40 parliamentary seats which represent 24% of the overall seats. Correspondingly they are also facing about 26% of the electoral. How a party that wins 24% of the total seat can control the government? Does it make any sense?
Further, 24% of the seats are on the assumption that DAP wins all 40 parliamentary seats. In the last general elections, 7 of the 40 seats were actually won by PN or BN political parties. That leaves 33 seats that potentially can be won and this translates to an even lower percentage i.e. 20%. So how does 20% ends up controlling the other 80%?
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One of the major changes, when Anthony Loke took to rein in the Transport Ministry, is the culture of greeting Ministers. That speaks of high productivity, focus to work, and optimizing the limited manpower. One hopes that he will be back handling the Transport Ministry if Pakatan Harapan becomes the Federal Government.
DAP Ministerial Numbers
If Pakatan Harapan wins the GE15, it is likely that Anwar as the new Prime Minister may appoint the same persons to their portfolios when Pakatan won the general elections in 2018. Dr Mahathir appointed 6 Ministers of the total 28 Ministers which represented 21% of the ministerial portfolios and 7 Deputy Ministers from DAP of the total 27 Deputy Ministers represented 26% of the ministerial portfolios.
In terms of Ministers, we had the following Ministers:-
- Minister of Finance – Lim Guan Eng
- Minister of Transport – Anthony Loke Siew Fook
- Minister of Human Resources – Kulasegaran Murugeson
- Minister of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change – Yeo Bee Yin
- Minister of Primary Industries – Teresa Kok Suh Sim
- Minister of Communication and Multimedia – Gobind Singh Deo
All of these Ministers did a brilliant job at their respective portfolios especially Anthony Loke although there were challenges for Lim Guan Eng as the country discovered just how messy the 1MDB debt really was as the team starts to dig into the scandal further. Appointing Teresa Kok as the Minister of Primary Industries was an issue as there were external issues affecting the export of palm oil namely to India which Dr Mahathir had managed to piss them off effectively.
On the Deputy Ministers, we had the following Deputy Ministers:-
- Deputy Minister of Defence – Liew Chin Tong
- Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry – Dr. Ong Kian Ming
- Deputy Minister of Education – Teo Nie Ching
- Deputy Minister of Water, Land and Natural Resources – Tengku Zulpuri Shah Raja Puji
- Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs – Chong Chieng Jen
- Deputy Minister of Women, Family and Community Development – Hannah Yeoh Tseow Suan
- Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports – Steven Sim Chee Keong
Hannah Yeow was prominent considering she was elected as the Speaker of the Selangor State Legislative Assembly from 2013 to 2018 whilst Steven Sim was rather prominent with charity works during the COVID-19 lockdown.
State | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Johor | 30469.25 | 32893.656 | 35315.477 | 36387.78 | 37376.625 | 33855.588 | 36474.389 |
2. | Kedah | 18864.359 | 19834.921 | 20961.394 | 21398.006 | 22377.836 | 22693.383 | 23574.759 |
3. | Kelantan | 12159.127 | 12908.876 | 13695.392 | 13689.758 | 14340.742 | 14951.389 | 15584.235 |
4. | Melaka | 40582.389 | 42088.187 | 46827.736 | 47899.529 | 49108.855 | 42861.154 | 44609.624 |
5. | Negeri Sembilan | 36908.362 | 38744.396 | 41738.685 | 43017.306 | 45384.001 | 41254.325 | 44494.613 |
6. | Pahang | 30753.666 | 32688.166 | 35750.76 | 35577.417 | 36560.401 | 38009.975 | 41312.65 |
7. | Pulau Pinang | 46020.202 | 48632.845 | 51130.126 | 52921.395 | 55202.427 | 55774.275 | 59685.25 |
8. | Perak | 25609.725 | 27343.068 | 29341.185 | 30301.958 | 31718.811 | 31625.678 | 34338.391 |
9. | Perlis | 21539.532 | 22588.487 | 23596.271 | 24408.425 | 25513.388 | 21099.148 | 21507.848 |
10. | Selangor | 43513.293 | 45505.726 | 49047.788 | 51546.554 | 55029.989 | 48606.694 | 51929.516 |
11. | Terengganu | 26808.261 | 27434.475 | 29848.462 | 30201.509 | 30929.428 | 29461.611 | 30901.28 |
12. | Sabah | 19829.83 | 21169.209 | 24639.219 | 25831.756 | 25368.093 | 24652.308 | 29960.462 |
13. | Sarawak | 45006.081 | 45346.404 | 50176.923 | 52386.947 | 53550.762 | 55930.524 | 65971.442 |
14. | W.P. Kuala Lumpur | 97060.118 | 103505.592 | 113357.65 | 121508.576 | 129676.593 | 108791.157 | 111292.426 |
15. | W.P. Labuan | 63069.404 | 66347.532 | 70705.183 | 74270.579 | 77799.407 | 80393.083 | 81344.612 |
Malaysia | 37739.245 | 39505.492 | 42854.45 | 44708.398 | 46512.792 | 43701.529 | 47438.54 |
Pakatan Harapan-governed Penang & Selangor are in 4th place with a GDP per capita of RM59,685.25 and 5th place with a GDP per capita of RM51,929.52 respectively which is higher than the national GDP per capita. Sarawak is in the 3rd place primarily thanks to the income from petroleum. Not surprisingly PAS-led Kelantan remains at the lowest place with a GDP per capita of just RM15,584.24 and has consistently been at the lowest place for many years. Data source: Department of Statistics Malaysia.
Final Say
One has to wonder why there is so much hatred for DAP when they are not the only ones who raise sensitive issues that the other political parties claim to be. But it is understandable why they are trying very hard to paint DAP as the bogeyman, especially to the Malays and Non-Muslims.
Apart from some rogue politicians in the past, in general, DAP is actually one of the most progressive political parties out there even within the political parties that are labeled Chinese based.
Perbandingan parti dominan kaum cina antara GERAKAN, MCA & DAP#PRU15 pic.twitter.com/V7R80BFKvx
— Zack Rockstarᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠ (@zack_rockstar) November 12, 2022
Firstly they are multi-racial, and multi-culture long before PKR even came into the picture, and thus they are able to provide services regardless of your background. Participation from the Malay community was not that encouraging in the past due to overwhelming but successful propaganda that it is an anti-Malay, anti-Muslim political party. However, things are changing positively as more and more young, professional Malays are discovering why DAP is one of the few political parties that has better-class politicians.
Secondly, DAP has proved that they can indeed govern effectively without the need to add any unnecessary red-tapes and based on C.A.T. (Competency, Accountability, and Transparency) approach. This is actually a big lesson for Gerakan who lost the state of Penang in 2008 and unable to win it back since then.
Penang, regarded as the Silicon Valley of the East, has one of the largest economies in Malaysia, contributing as much as RM7 billion of the country’s tax income in 2015. Penang has the highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita among Malaysian states.
With a GDP per capita of RM49,873 as of 2017, Penang has also surpassed the World Bank’s threshold to be considered a high-income economy, which was set at US$12,056 within the same year.
Furthermore, Penang consistently records one of the lowest unemployment rates within the nation – 2.1% as of 2017. The state has experienced one of the largest reductions in Gini coefficient within Malaysia as well, at 0.356 in 2016.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Thirdly, DAP has always been the promoter of the bigger vision of “Malaysian Malaysia” which is a clear rejection of a race-based approach that clearly has not worked in the best interest of the country. Race-based governance has been proven to be abused considerably and this had led some politicians to become super rich and yet the poor of the poor remained at the lowest level of society. Instead “Malaysian Malaysia” concept strives to promote equality and fairness beyond race and religion.
DAP will continue to strive for a “Malaysian Malaysia” where all citizens can enjoy justice, freedom, democracy, and good governance regardless of race, religion, or creed.
(Source: DAP Malaysia)
Clearly, the continued narration that DAP will control the Government is not only incorrect but factually it is not impossible considering the seats that they are likely to win. Such faulty representation is unprofessional and a clear diversion of the other political parties’ own shortcomings.