On Feb 4, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim visited Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology (TAR UMT) to hand over a government allocation.

A potential seating issue at the event was narrowly avoided thanks to a gracious gesture by Transport Minister Anthony Loke.

Loke, the DAP secretary-general, offered to move his and his colleagues’ seats back by one row. This allowed the hosts - TAR UMT president Lee Sze Wei and board chairperson Chan Kong Choy, a former MCA deputy president - to sit in the front row alongside the prime minister.

While that scramble for seating was resolved with elegance, a far more serious fight for position is brewing elsewhere. Penang DAP is embroiled in...