Bah has had it with DAP

Perak DAP leaders wooed orang asli lawyer Bah Tony to join the party, not understanding that he is a human rights activist and not a politician. Disillusioned, he quit after less than two years.

EIGHTEEN months after joining DAP, orang asli lawyer and activist Bah Tony left, dealing a serious blow to the party and raising a question mark over its multi-racial stance and commitment to help the indigenous people.

Bah's resignation was reportedly due to being disillusioned with the factional politics and dynastic domination in Perak, as well as the warlords allied to the family.

It has also to do with alleged lack of democratic best practices in selecting candidates, punishing errant members and making new mem-bers feel welcomed in the party.

Nationally, DAP is dominated by a faction led by the father-and-son team of party adviser Lim Kit Siang and secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.

In Perak, too, national and state leaders allied to them make the important decisions, with the Foochow cousins, state DAP chief Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham and secretary Nga Kor Ming, holding all the cards.

Anyone not aligned to them like Ipoh Barat MP M. Kulasegaran and his followers were soon sidelined.

Bah, 60, whose real name is Amani William-Hunt Abdullah, was not into the Perak factional politics.

He only wanted to help his orang asli community and to put their plight on the national agenda.

In recent weeks, he had actively helped to acquit an orang asli charged with killing a tiger.

“They (Ngeh and Nga) wooed and persuaded Bah Tony to join the party without understanding that he is a human rights activist and not a politician,” said a DAP source.

“They did not help him grow in the party. He was left to manage on his own. They did not help him get acquainted with other leaders and contribute to the party.

“The party has to change its ways ... it has to change its style of management and help its new members get acquainted with politics and the party's culture,” the source said.

Bah, seen for a while as one of the party's rising stars, had reportedly been promised the Chenderiang state seat, which has a sizeable number of orang asli voters.

The seat is currently held by Barisan Nasional's Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon, from MCA.

DAP lost the seat in successive elections from 1986 to 1999 and handed it over to PKR in 2004 and 2008.

The party has lately been lobbying again for the seat but its ally is in no mood now to give it up.

The Ngeh-Nga faction believes the Chenderiang seat can be won by a Chinese candidate from the party and was hoping that Bah will help to swing the orang asli electorate, said to make up 20% of the 19,000 voters in the constituency, its way.

While the cousins toy with this idea, Bah is said to have been kept in the dark about the game plan and his candidacy, further aggravating his disillusionment with the party.

With over 50 parliamentary and 100 state seats reportedly allocated to the party, DAP is subject to intense jockeying and jostling by prospective candidates.

It is a system that new members find difficult to digest, accept and work with.

“They get frustrated and become disillusioned when told by one warlord that you are in the list of candidates and, later by another warlord, that you are out,” said the source.

With a general election imminent, the jostling has gotten worse.

Like former DAP vice-chairman Tunku Abdul Aziz Ibrahim, who quit the party in May, Bah has also left after finding its factional politics unpalatable, distasteful and not in keeping with his ideals of activism.