Open warfare in Malaysia’s DAP at crucial party polls, with Lim political dynasty at stake

KUALA LUMPUR: The high-stakes battle for the leadership of Malaysia’s Democratic Action Party (DAP), a key component in Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s coalition government, is turning into a do-or-die contest for one of the country’s most established ethnic Chinese political dynasties.

The contest for the DAP’s all-powerful Central Executive Committee (CEC) on March 16 was originally pitched as a congress to elect a core leadership team that will pilot the party in the next general election that must be held before February 2028. 

It is fast turning into a political survival test for current party chairman Lim Guan Eng, who is the son of veteran firebrand politician Lim Kit Siang.

The Lim family has long dominated the DAP, a breakaway political institution of Singapore’s People’s Action Party (PAP). 

While the elder Lim retired in March 2022 after 56 years in active politics, he remains an influential figure in the party together with his son, Guan Eng and daughter, Hui Ying, who is deputy finance minister in Anwar’s cabinet.

Now, party leaders nurtured by the Lims into senior positions are agitating. 

This group, led by secretary-general Anthony Loke Siew Fook and political rivals of the Lims, including Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow, are coming together to demand a greater say in DAP’s future and address widespread criticism of political favouritism in the party rank-and-file.

“OPEN WARFARE”

“It is open warfare, and the targets are the Lims because many feel that the factions aligned to the (Lim) family are being favoured,” Ronnie Liu, a retired former DAP politician, who left the party more than two years ago, told CNA. 

The upcoming DAP internal election is turning into a closely watched affair and has taken on national significance because of its ramifications for Malaysian politics. 

Once regarded as the country’s most enduring political opposition force, DAP currently ranks as a cornerstone of the Anwar coalition government. 

With control of 40 parliamentary seats in the 222-member lower house, the party is the second-largest after the opposition right-wing Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS), with 43 elected representatives. Anwar’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) has 31 seats in Parliament.

PKR and PAS will also be holding internal party polls in May and September, respectively, but both contests are expected to be tame affairs compared to the intensity gripping this week’s DAP elections.

Political analysts and party leaders noted that a divided DAP would create its own set of challenges for Anwar, who has been squeezed in a tightrope walk of juggling the interests of four ideologically diverse political coalitions, comprising more than a dozen parties, in his unity government since assuming the premiership in November 2022.

That’s because DAP’s longstanding caustic relations with several of the parties in Anwar’s coalition, such as the members in the Barisan Nasional coalition led by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and the East Malaysian parties in Sarawak and Sabah, remain testy and regularly result in public verbal clashes.

DAP AT A CROSSROAD

“That leaders want to step out from the shadows of the Lim family is understandable. But this whole fight is personality-driven,” said former DAP parliamentary representative Charles Santiago.

He added that the party is at a “crossroad and it needs to take stock of its shortcomings and how it stays relevant in government after decades in the opposition”.

A total of 70 candidates will be vying for the 30 seats in the policy-making CEC, and those selected by over 4,000 delegates from party branches nationwide will decide by a secret ballot whether the younger Lim, who holds no position in the Anwar government, stays on as chairman or is replaced. 

While the secretary-general is the most powerful position in the party, the DAP chairman wields clout because that person leads a panel of leaders who determine candidates that will stand under the party’s ticket in the national polls and state assembly elections.

The cast of aspirants vying for positions on the CEC features several prominent faces. 

Apart for secretary-general Loke, party president Lim and his sister, they include DAP vice-president Nga Kor Ming, a powerful party warlord from Perak, Penang DAP chairman Steven Sim Chee Keong, who is also Human Resources Minister, and Minister of Digital Gobind Singh Deo.

“It is an uphill fight this time for Guan Eng but we think he will make it into the CEC. What is not clear is whether he can put enough of his people into the body and get voted in as chairman,” said a Penang DAP leader, who asked not to be named but acknowledged that he was aligned with the Lims.

While the elections for the CEC in previous years have been under an atmosphere of friendly intra-party rivalry, this election is proving to be intense, with clear battle lines drawn between factions aligned to the Lims and those pushing for a generational shift. 

The ongoing campaign for positions in the all-powerful CEC, played out at lunches and dinners in Chinese restaurants in the capital Kuala Lumpur, Georgetown in Penang and other DAP strongholds such as Seremban in Negeri Sembilan and Melaka, has laid bare the strife in a party that has long been a symbol of cohesion in Malaysia’s messy political landscape. 

Party leaders said that the outcome of the upcoming CEC fight remains too close to call with many aspirants refusing to declare their allegiances. 

What’s more, several senior party veterans, including Tan Kok Wai, a parliamentary representative since 1995, Fong Kui Lun, a seven-time Member of Parliament, and deputy minister M Kulasegaran, have announced their withdrawal from the CEC race. The three leaders have long been identified to be Lim loyalists.

Trouble has been brewing since the dramatic May 2018 general election when DAP, together with its other allies in the Pakatan Harapan coalition and former premier Mahathir Mohamad, ousted the decades-old ruling political alliance headed by UMNO.

The Lims ruffled the feathers of several DAP factions when a clutch of young politicians aligned with the family were given key ministerial and government positions. 

But the new government, which was led by Mahathir, lasted only 22 months and collapsed partly because of deep differences between the DAP and the other ethnic Malay-based parties, leading to a period of serious political instability.

It was only after the November 2022 national polls that political stability returned to Malaysia when Anwar assumed the premiership and formed a unity government comprising four other political coalitions.

ALLEGATIONS OF FAVOURITISM

An uneasy calm has prevailed in the DAP.

The party performed well in the elections, winning 40 parliamentary seats out of the 55 it contested. 

But antagonism against the Lim family only deepened over allegations of favoritism following the decision by the leadership to drop several veteran members of parliament from the election line-up in favour of relatively new faces seen to be aligned with the family. 

Santiago, who is now the current chairman of the National Water Services Commission, was among the casualties in the last election when he was dropped from defending his position as the Member of Parliament for the Klang, a port town outside the capital Kuala Lumpur.

Phoon Wing Keong of local think tank Centre for Malaysian Chinese Studies, said the impact of the generational shift taking place in DAP, “with senior party veterans stepping down and the middle generation taking full control of the party’s direction”, will test public sentiment of the party that has long relied on ethnic non-Malays, particularly the Chinese community, for support.

“With no senior leaders remaining, can Loke’s leadership gain the confidence of the party?” wondered Phoon. 

Loke, who replaced Lim Guan Eng as secretary-general in March 2022, is widely seen as less strident compared to the Lims and his relations with the leaders of the coalition members in the Anwar government are more cordial.

UNDERCURRENTS

Santiago and other DAP leaders also noted an undercurrent that the party’s hardcore supporters are noticing.

Multi-racial in outlook but predominantly Chinese in composition, the DAP draws much of its support from urban voters and professionals in big towns and cities across Malaysia.

The party has long been vocal against corruption and education issues particularly in the Chinese community, and in pushing for a more even distribution of economic opportunities.

Under Loke’s leadership as secretary-general of DAP, the party has become less outspoken and, according to frustrated DAP politicians, more comfortable to play a subservient role in government.

Factions aligned to the Lims are arguing that Guan Eng should be allowed to play a prominent role in the party because he remains the only DAP leader willing to speak out about the shortcomings in government and other issues, such as the controversial decision by the country’s Attorney General to discontinue corruption charges against UMNO politicians, who now have roles in government.

In recent gatherings with party supporters, Lim Guan Eng has noted that he would continue to be critical of the government. 

There is general empathy for Lim, who is 64 years old and still harbours political ambitions.

His close associates noted that his extensive experience in politics has created a huge gulf between him and members of DAP’s core leadership. But they acknowledge that his high-profile and cutting leadership style has caused uneasiness within the party and often turned into noisy political arguments with other ethnic Malay parties, such as UMNO and PAS.

Lim did not respond to requests for comment.

Should Lim fail to retain his chairmanship of the party in the Mar 16 election, “he is unlikely to fade away and could emerge as a dissenting figure in the party”, noted Mr Phoon of the Centre for Malaysian Chinese Studies.

“The DAP should learn how to provide a better exit plan for former party leaders who have made contributions, such as offering them positions in government to allow them to play a role,” he said.