“I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.”

- Ralph Nader

What the latest DAP fiasco demonstrates is that DAP is about as adept at handling internal party crises as the Trump administration. The resignation and vilification of the four DAP operatives is standard DAP operating procedure bolstered by the fact that the party is secure in the knowledge that the Chinese vote is with them. While this may get them kudos from hardcore DAP supporters, ultimately it does nothing to convince other oppositional types that DAP is anything more than an authoritarian party that demonises its opponents much like the Umno regime.

Does party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng realise the implication of dubbing these DAP operatives as the ‘Gang of Four’? By this I mean does he realise what this says about the political structure and nature of DAP? Probably not. After all, it is a catchy term and extremely convenient.

I have no idea if these Guan Eng refuseniks are an Umno-linked plot to destabilise the DAP or they are sincerely interested in furthering a cause they believe the DAP high command have abandoned. What I do know is that the reasons they claim they have lost faith in the leadership and the direction of the party is legitimate and is shared by many, not only in DAP but also the opposition.

While this may mean nothing to DAP, it should mean something if you are really interested in working effectively with a broad coalition and garnering votes that you think - so far - are beyond your reach because of the efforts of Umno.

Does having those same beliefs make me or anyone else an enemy of DAP and traitor to the cause of the opposition? Lim’s “apology” to DAP supporters was disingenuous; an attack by way of mea culpa and indicative that DAP does not truly wish to engage with the criticisms directed against his party. Furthermore, asking for forgiveness for backing the wrong horse in an internal political race says more about the head honcho’s leadership instincts rather than the supposed act of betrayal.

Lim said that if Kota Melaka MP Sim Tong Him was loyal to the party, he would stay and convince DAP cadres that his cause was just. However, this in itself is an illogical statement because former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, former deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin and the rest of the Najib refuseniks claimed loyalty to Umno and its so-called struggle, but left when they realised that the game was rigged against them. Yet this acts seems logical to the powerbrokers in DAP.

Lim also reminded people that it was a “dishonest lie” as apparently the so-called Gang of Four ignored Umno’s role in supporting PAS with its hudud initiative. But this was not the reason for their quitting. It was because they claimed DAP, by collaborating with PAS - remember the ‘PAS for All’ propaganda? - accelerated Malaysia’s Islamisation.

I have said pretty much the same thing. The only thing holding the ‘PAS for All’ mafia together was the late Tok Guru, Nik Aziz Nik Mat, and when he passed, Hadi accelerated his own agenda, which was when DAP had a falling out with PAS. So, the political union between DAP and PAS did make PAS a mainstream political party and to argue otherwise would be a lie.

Furthermore, the formation of Amanah and the new coalition is further evidence of how much influence DAP had with some in PAS and the nature of the relationship between the so-called moderate factions of PAS and the DAP's influence between the power-brokers of the alternative front.

Wait and see

Guan Eng asked us to wait and see if BN could orchestrate the destruction of DAP, but the reality is that the BN can do no such thing. They can demonise, arrest and harass DAP members but the only people who could “destroy” the party are the voting public of Malaysia. You can only go so much blaming the Umno hegemon for your internal problems. After a while, your voting base, those who do not necessarily participate online, will eventually tire of the narratives that are good for party solidarity but which does nothing to solve their day-to-day problems.

I loathe to disagree publicly with DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang because he is one of those Malaysians who has actually put in the hard work of defending this nation against its enemies from within, but his narrative of this being an Umno “black ops” mission to destabilise the DAP is just untenable.

“Black ops” are convert by nature and Umno has been overt in furthering narratives that DAP, and specifically Kit Siang, is anti-Islam and anti-Malay. What DAP does not acknowledge is that it has by its actions, by its vilification of its supposed enemies and the way how the party eats its own, further the narrative that DAP is authoritarian and does not tolerate dissent. This just feeds into the stereotype that some Malays - an important demographic - have of the Chinese community. The fact that Umno exploits this is par for the course in the race-based political terrain of Malaysia.

Indeed, while Guan Eng’s apology came across as disingenuous, Kit Siang’s apology was not well-thought-out. Lim said that he wanted to apologise to the people of Malacca for the “defection” of the four operatives who resigned. However, at the time of writing this, those operatives did not defect to any other political party. They claimed they were “independents”. Unless the DAP has cogent evidence that those who resigned had joined BN, were in league with BN or just received some pecuniary remuneration, it does not serve the cause of justice, equality and democracy to imply otherwise.

DAP’s Sungai Pinang assemblyperson Teng Chang Khim so far has been the only rational response to this issue. When long-time comrades leave the fold for whatever reasons, they should not be vilified, especially by members who have benefited from unexpected political winds of change instead of contributing the hard way over decades and personal sacrifice.

The reality is that this was an internal party feud that the DAP high command knew was brewing for some time but did nothing beyond playing personality politics instead of getting in front of the problem. When the issue blew up, the DAP leaders engaged in the usual strategy of demonising their opponents and playing the victim relying on their cadres of online supporters to further narratives that this was about Umno gaining an advantage - of course, it is - instead of how the party seems uninterested in dealing with criticisms levelled against the central command.

When I interviewed Kit Siang, I specifically asked about the perception that the “DAP cannot accept legitimate criticism without deflecting or engaging in victimhood”. His response - “I do not think DAP leaders have any objection to legitimate criticism. If there are DAP leaders who bristle over legitimate criticism, they have to learn to live with it as an integral part of a democratic society.”

The problem here is that the DAP has always attempted to make the case that any criticism against it is not legitimate. If people seriously think that this does not matter and people will just naturally fall into line to oust PM Najib Razak, they should seriously reconsider this naïve outlook.

Umno will always win the propaganda war with the Malays if DAP keeps supplying the hegemon with ammunition.

S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of Royal Malaysian Navy.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.