Major leadership changes in DAP election

THE stage is set for a watershed political transition in DAP, as by the time the sun sets on Sunday (March 20) the party will be led by a new secretary-general and also a new chairman.

Party leaders have been tight-lipped about the election of a new leadership line-up at its national congress and the media has had to read between the lines to understand what is going on.

However, speculation over who will take over from Lim Guan Eng as secretary-general has somewhat subsided after national organising secretary Anthony Loke posted a photo on Facebook showing him and Perak warlord Nga Kor Ming having a private dinner at a Chinese restaurant.

Although Loke, 46, has been the frontrunner for the top party post, Nga, 49, was often seen as a dark horse possibility.

But the pleasant body language, warm smiles and thumbs-up in the photo sent the signal that the two big personalities had reached some sort of understanding.

It suggested that Nga, a dazzling orator and an influencer on Chinese social media, is not going to rock the boat and Loke will sail through.

At another level, Cheras MP Tan Kok Wai, hinted in an interview with China Press that he is making way as the party chairman. He claimed he had planned to stay for only a term.

Tan, a known loyalist of the Lim family, did not say who would be next but it is no longer a secret that Guan Eng, 61, will be the next chairman, having breached the term limit as secretary-general.

A smooth succession lies ahead despite the gloomy circumstances surrounding the party polls.

The election is taking place at the lowest point in DAP after three state elections that saw the party’s support on the decline.

The party, which once could do no wrong in the eyes of the Chinese, is now frequently scolded on social media, something unheard of in the past.

Guan Eng’s interviews in the Chinese newspapers in recent weeks have also drawn hundreds of comments, mostly negative, on the papers’ Facebook page.

It has been quite a long fall from grace.

But informed sources said delegates at the national congress in Selangor this weekend will circle the wagon and defend the party.

Delegates will want an explanation on why the party performed so poorly in one election after another.

Guan Eng has explained quite well what went wrong for Pakatan Harapan in Johor but delegates would also want to know what the leadership proposes to do about it.

The noise coming from the Umno general assembly suggests that it is highly possible that a general election will be called by August or so.

Pakatan does not have much time to get its act together. It is also quite fractured and DAP, as the most cohesive partner, may be required to take the lead in mending fences.

Party leaders want to do well in the general election. Power is very addictive and the party intends to hold on to their power base in Penang and Selangor.

People who have never tasted power, long to taste it. And once they have tasted it, they find it hard to live without it.

The DAP election system involves voting in a central committee of 30 persons who will then pick the office-bearers among themselves.

A total of 30% of the posts will be reserved for women, reaffirming DAP’s initiative of breaking the glass ceiling for women in politics.

There was an intense contest among rival camps at the state level elections but there does not seem to be any visible camps among the 93 candidates vying for posts.

For instance, the Selangor polls were an “Elites versus Grassroots” rivalry. In Perak, the camp aligned to the powerful Nga and Ngeh cousins annihilated the line-up led by Kampar MP Thomas Su.

In Johor, former assemblyman Tan Hong Pin’s line-up was almost wiped out by those aligned to Liew Chin Tong who is now the Perling assemblyman.

All eyes this weekend will be on how the big names are ranked in terms of votes.

Loke needs to be among the top three to lend weight to his standing as the next secretary-general.

However, Selangor DAP leader Datuk Teng Chang Khim had said that as long as the Lim family are around, whoever takes over as secretary-general will only be the head prefect and not the headmaster.

An opinion piece in China Press noted that there will be “three family members” in the leadership line-up for the first time in DAP history.

The writer coined the phrase “Lin chia san kou” which means “three mouths from the Lim family”. In traditional Chinese culture, family members are often referred to as “mouths to feed”.

Senator Lim Hui Ying, the younger of Kit Siang’s two daughters, is likely to secure a place in the line-up.

Will Guan Eng and his father Lim Kit Siang continue to be ranked at the top?

It is not uncommon to hear calls for Kit Siang, now 81, and his son to step back so that DAP can freshen its image.

But sceptics say nothing like that will happen this Sunday.

Kit Siang, known to party members as “lao da” or elder brother, may have an image problem outside but inside the party, he is still respected and quite indispensable especially when there is a crisis.

And DAP is indeed in troubled waters with the opposition split and a general election on the horizon.