COMMENT | DAP’s biggest asset is its biggest liability.

Of all the parties in Malaysia, it can be confidently said that DAP is the only peninsular party that can be guaranteed to win a large number of seats, no matter what happens.

There is no reason to expect support for DAP to reduce significantly in any of its strongholds, no matter what happens politically in the near future.

The same cannot be said for any other major peninsular party. The success of parties like Umno, Bersatu, PAS, and PKR will depend largely on constantly evolving dynamics, alliances, and arrangements.

Almost regardless of what alignments emerge however, as long as DAP does not go into the elections taking the type of stance and positioning traditionally associated with MCA, they should still win big in all their traditional strongholds.

The question is: so what?

DAP’s success in 2018 represented the absolute limit of how far the party can go with its current configuration and branding...