COMMENT | Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi may have underestimated the DAP when he tried to rub salt into the wound during the party’s current re-election crisis.

A central executive committee (CEC) re-election had already been carried out by DAP in 2013 shortly after the first flawed election, but four years later, the Registrar of Societies (ROS) has instructed it to carry out another re-election.

“There is really no basis for such a re-election,” a source said. “It is to keep us busy and occupied in view of the coming general election.”

Another source said that the request by the ROS is simply “nonsensical as we have already complied with their directives to the letter”. This sounds as if a letter in a glass bottle had gone around the world and only reached the shores of Malaysia four years later. But Malaysians watching the political development are simply not amused by it.

Another source said that the attack was expected as the DAP has been a prominent critic of 1MDB. “Because of this crisis, we are now more united as a party,” he said, adding, “The more you try to break our spirit, our members will rise to the occasion, especially when the party is being attacked.”

The difference between the DAP and Umno, of which Zahid is deputy president, he continued, is that the former thrives on volunteerism. “No one is paid to work, nor are they seeking to gain contracts after we win.

“People enter politics because they are willing to sacrifice their time and money for a better Malaysia. In short, they are there for the cause,” he said. 

This is why Zahid may eventually have to swallow his own words, because the degree of volunteerism which exists in the DAP is simply absent in Umno. Umno’s election machinery is run on millions of ringgit, but the DAP has seen volunteers giving their time and money whenever there is a crisis.

A resilient party

DAP has been around for 52 years. It has gone through one crisis after another. When some of its leaders were swooped upon during Operation Lalang in 1987, the party remained stronger than ever, with most young people during my time choosing to vote for DAP. Those who were overseas decided to come back home.

Crises are sometimes windows of opportunity to enter the next level. In politics, like in a war, sometimes one has to take a few steps backward in order to stride ahead.

A good example of this maxim can be seen in the meteoric rise of The Star newspaper, which was banned for several months during Operation Lalang but subsequently became the most widely-read newspaper in the country for many years.

One must not forget that back in the 1990s, when DAP’s “Robocop” campaign backfired, the party learnt a very important lesson - that it cannot underestimate the power of the press.

Then Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, BN leaders and the media had ridiculed Lim Kit Siang for comparing himself to the fictional character, calling him a “robot” and a “soulless” person. With the advent of online media, the political landscape has changed especially since 2008.

Despite losing a number of seats in 1999, DAP has continued to perform better since then. After it left the Barisan Alternatif coalition in 2001 due to a sharp disagreement with PAS over the issue of an Islamic state, it managed to capture 12 parliamentary seats in 2004, while both PAS and Keadilan suffered major setbacks. In that election, Lim won Ipoh Timur with a majority of 10,000 votes.

In 2008, when the political tsunami hit the shores of West Malaysia, DAP won 28 parliamentary seats. Together with PAS and Keadilan, 82 seats were won by the three parties, denying Barisan Nasional its two-thirds majority for the first time.

Clearly, this shows a big swing in the people’s votes towards DAP since 2008. From 28 seats in 2008, DAP won 38 parliamentary seats in the last general election in 2013, showing that the party, despite all the setbacks and crises it had faced, remained resilient.

Zahid’s latest attack on Dr Mahathir, a former icon of Umno, may have given DAP an added advantage that it never enjoyed before. The turnout for the recent 1MDB ceramah by Pakatan Harapan in Penaga, an Umno stronghold in Seberang Prai, is a good indication of how hate speech by Umno leaders will turn people towards the DAP.

The only way we can help the DAP is to share this article with as many people as possible. The numbers will tell a story.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.

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