Hostilities in Penang DAP turn nasty

A JOURNALIST covering the Penang legislative assembly sitting has labeled the “Duduk!” (sit down) remark of Chief Minister (CM) Chow Kon Yeow as the “quote of the year”.

Chow rarely loses his temper and journalists as well as the assemblymen watching on were startled as well as amused to see the CM admonish his predecessor Lim Guan Eng to sit down after he kept interrupting as Chow was speaking.

Guan Eng, who is Air Putih assemblyman, is still a feared figure in DAP and no one has ever dared use that tone on him, much less ordered him to sit down.

It was as good as Chow asking Guan Eng to shut up.

Tensions between the current and former CMs have been bubbling away like ingredients in a restaurant hotpot but the open confrontation in such a formal setting was something else.

The joke that Guan Eng is the “best Opposition leader” that Penang has ever had may have become all too true.

He has eclipsed the actual Opposition bench, which only comes alive on religious issues and which has been clueless about how to leverage on the falling-out between the two DAP leaders.

Meanwhile, the real Opposition leader Muhammad Fauzi Yusoff was whisked off to hospital in an ambulance because of high blood pressure issues.

Guan Eng’s political career is on the brink as he fights corruption charges over the undersea tunnel project but he has managed to stay relevant with his fearless style of speaking out on issues.

His arrows have been aimed at the current CM, but former Jelutong MP Jeff Ooi said the real target is probably Steven Sim, the Bukit Mertajam MP and Entrepreneur and Cooperatives Development Minister, who has been positioned as the CM-in-waiting.

Ooi, an astute observer of Penang politics, said there is some sort of triangular power tussle going on between Chow, Guan Eng and Sim and it will worsen closer to the general election.

Penangites have never seen anything like this in the history of modern Penang and they shake their heads as though having a headache when talking about it.

Sim has been told to stop commenting on the succession but not everyone is taking heed of the advice.

Former Tanjung MP and Kampung Kolam DAP branch chief Ng Wei Aik has been actively proposing names for the CM post.

Ng has argued that a strongman is needed to sort out the infighting and has suggested that DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke uproot from his Negri Sembilan base to take the post.

Ng needs to be reminded that the CM’s job is to manage the state for the good of Penangites and not to sort out his party’s power struggles.

Earlier this year, he flirted with the idea of making Puchong MP Yeo Bee Yin the first woman CM. It would be nice to have the woman known as the “billionaire's wife" - her husband is one of the richest men in the country - as CM except that Penangites thought it was too silly.

Yeo has been the classic DAP rolling stone who rolled from Bakri in Johor to Selangor where she then rolled from one safe seat to another.

It is time that Penang gets a CM who is a true-blue Penangite, someone who speaks the Penang-style Hokkien and the northern Malay dialect, who understands why Penang people like to eat nasi kandar for breakfast and who does not need to pretend to like prawn mee which, by the way, is known as Hokkien mee in Penang.

There have been too many importees - Guan Eng is from Melaka and Chow is from Kuala Lumpur.

There was also an attempt to propel Damansara MP Gobind Singh Deo to the post but it caused an uproar among Chinese groups.

Penang is the only state with a Chinese CM yet the party is making no effort at all to pick and groom the best and the brightest as candidates.

Many of the DAP candidates fielded in the 2008 general election were a breath of fresh air. But the fresh faces have aged and are starting to resemble stale goods or what Penangites call “kiam hu” (salted fish).

DAP’s candidate line-up in the 2023 state election was unimpressive and disappointing. A number of them were so poorly qualified that they should be working in a supermarket instead of tasked with passing legislation.

One of the assemblymen is rumoured to have a drinking problem, several cannot speak decent English and another is said to have been picked because he would ferry a top leader around on a motorcycle.

Penangites often boast of producing well-educated professionals, yet they voted for this motley crew.

It is thus not difficult to see why Sim has emerged as the leading candidate, overtaking Guan Eng’s sister Lim Hui Ying, for the job.

“The animosity between them has not abated. Hui Ying cannot be discounted for the CM post as yet,” said Ooi.

Sim, who turned 44 this week, is a computer science graduate and is hardworking, has governing experience and speaks fluent Malay.

However, some are put off by how he turns every incident of helping people into a publicity stunt. His seemingly limitless source of funding for his many charity projects has also raised questions about who is funding him.

Two giant publicity billboards featuring Sim that came up near the Penang Bridge and which featured the pantun he is known for, drew mixed reactions.

He is well-received by the Malays, but conservative Chinese groups think he has yet to pass the test in standing up for Chinese issues.

However, Sim has a “qualification” that the other names tossed about do not have. His identity card carries the 07 digit, denoting that he was born in Penang.

Loke has ignored the calls to take up the CM job. He has no intention of leaving his Negri Sembilan base which he spent years building up and where DAP is now the main pillar holding up the state government.

Ooi said the rumour mill will go on turning for as long as Loke stays silent and for as long as the arrows from Guan Eng keep flying.