COMMENT | Two days ago, Sangeet Kaur Deo, daughter of the late DAP chairperson Karpal Singh, gave her personal opinion on Dr Mahathir Mohamad being named the prime ministerial candidate for Pakatan Harapan.

In a Facebook post, Sangeet questioned the leaders of DAP who had always been vocal against abuses of power, but remained silent following Mahathir’s recent apologies without any calls to hold him accountable for wrongdoings during his tenure as prime minister.

Honestly, I take my hat off to Sangeet for having the balls to speak out, although she herself is with DAP.

This is not the first time Sangeet has been vocal about the matter. In December 2016, speaking at the DAP national conference, she had already raised her concerns about DAP’s alliance with Bersatu.

“I strongly urge the leaders of DAP to be very mindful when we choose our allies. Yes, there are no permanent friends, there are no permanent enemies, but there must be permanent principles. And when we choose our allies, we must be sure that their principles are genuinely in line with ours,” she said.

Priorities versus principles

While unhappy netizens are asking Sangeet to keep her mouth shut on the Mahathir issue and accusing her of seeking 15 minutes of fame, I honestly think she is displaying the remarkable character of a true leader.

While DAP has swept aside their “Malaysia for Malaysians” ideology while making way for their newly-formed friendship with a party which does not recognise anyone but the Malays, Sangeet stands by her principles. I think many leaders who have lost their backbones can learn a thing or two from her.

Sangeet’s statement holds water. And anyone who refutes that is just being hypocritical.

For ages, we have been talking about the need for us to have leaders with values. And today, we ourselves are willing to push those values aside in order to make way for what we claim to be a “priority”.

Honestly, if getting rid of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is more important than adhering to principles and keeping values in check, I do not think bidding farewell to the regime which has been in control of Malaysia for the past six decades is going to do anything much to restore our nation.

Winning the war and marching towards Putrajaya isn’t going to be easy without the support of the majority. I get that. However, rebuilding Malaysia must be done the right way, by the right people, for the right reasons.

FA ABDUL is a passionate storyteller, a growing media trainer, an aspiring playwright, a regular director, a struggling producer, a self-acclaimed photographer, an expert Facebooker, a lazy blogger, a part-time queen and a full-time vainpot.

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