DAP needs reforms, too

I am writing with tongue-in-cheek to prompt the DAP leadership to do some serious re-thinking about their decision whether to remain or stay out of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's cabinet. 

Giving the prime minister to deliver reforms within six months was a convenient way to pass on the blame to the prime minister after the defeat of the DAP in Sabah. 

Anthony Loke would likely have already been part of the DAP during the period when the party, led by its two stalwarts Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh, suffered a major setback in the Tenth General Election in 1999. That election marked one of the most humiliating defeats in DAP’s history, as both leaders—long regarded as politically invincible—were unseated in the constituencies they contested: Karpal Singh as Chairman and Lim Kit Siang as DAP Secretary-General.

DAP has a history of withdrawing from the coalition Barisan Alternatif that they joined. In the context of marriage, DAP has to learn that a marriage vow includes "For better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death do us part."

When the marriage gets tough, it is the tough that gets going. Surely, Loke should know that the DAP is not so easily broken or "merajuk" when it comes to an important decision whether its leaders should stay on in cabinet.

DAP was the cause of the collapse of Barisan Alternatif when it withdrew itself on September 21, 2001 over a disagreement with PAS causing a collapse of the Barisan Alternatif. This, of course, diappointed a lot of voters who saw Barisan Alternatif, albeit small, was a credible Opposition front to contest against Barisan Nasional. DAP cannot stand as a lone ranger in a multiracial country where the then ruling party was strongest, but it was pride and perhaps shortsightedness that led them to think they were able to make it alone by themselves. 

The following Election on March 21, 2004, we saw a landslide victory for Barisan Nasional (BN) with DAP only winning 12 parliamentary seats. This simply showed that, unless the three major parties within the then Opposition coalition were united, they stood no chance of winning the election in a big way unlike in 2008 and 2018. 

If just judging DAP's performance by the two leaders' perforamnce, with Lim Kit Siang winning back Ipoh Timur and Karpal returning to Parliament as MP of Bukit Gelugor after losing in 1999, DAP pundits would have thought that their strategy worked when they were willing to stand alone. But one cannot dismiss the fact that it was in that year that Barisan Nasional under the leadership of Abdullah A. Badawi won 198 out of 219 parliamentary seats, because most people were already very fed up with the former prime minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad. They thought they could rally behind a new and better prime minister. 

This was BN's largest majority since 1978, surpassing the outcome of any other general elections in the past, with the opposition's seat count even collectively as individual parties, was reduced to just 20 seats, no thanks to the DAP. The 11th general election in 2004 is often cited as a key lesson in Malaysian opposition politics and coalition-building, and if this still does not wake up the leadership in DAP today, I wonder what will. The truth has to be better said than to see another major defeat by Pakatan Harapan as a whole. 

What this shows is that the rakyat were fed up with the Opposition parties not being able to put their act together. Compared to the days when they were together as Barisan Alternative, the coalition had 42 seats compared to 2004, when they were all operating as silos, all three parties only had 20 seats, half of that in 1999. It clearly shows that unity is what the rakyat are looking for. 

DAP should also realise that it won the 1999 general election riding on the hype created by Anwar's own Reformasi movement. Without the support from Anwar's reformasi movement and the Malay votes, DAP is unlikely today to win many of the rural seats. 

I wish that DAP leaders learn from these lessons and be more mature now unlike those days when they conveniently leIt Barisan Alternatif in the name of a non-compromise stance only to join back the newly-formed Opposition front Pakatan Rakyat led by then PKR leader, Anwar Ibrahim on April 1, 2008. Within just a few months, PR gave Barisan Nasional a big blow, a feat which, without the united front, DAP alone would not have been able to make a dent on Malaysian politics. 

In the current government, if not for Anwar, East Malaysian political parties also cannot work with the DAP. This is something that should come across very clearly by now to Anthony Loke and the top brass leaders within the party; otherwise, why did Loke did the most noble thing that even I never expected : to apologise to Sarawakians, followed by Lim Guan Eng's public apology the next day. 

The DAP must realise two importants factors: whether in 1999 or in 2008, they were riding on Anwar's reformasi movement to stay in government. A lot of people rallied behind Pakatan Rakyat because people wanted a change of govenrment. Many people gravitated towards Anwar, including the Chinese and Indian communities hat even caused then prime minister, Najib Abdul Razak to utter these words headlined by Utusan Melayu: "Apa Cina lagi mau?" It was an arrogant and blatant blow to the Chinese community, coming from a prime minister himself. This is why even Amanah parliamentaraian Sany Hamzan till today is saying this in parliament for which we are all grateful to the Hulu Langat MP for speaking up on behalf of the Chinese community, and the general election will not be on until 2027, proving this was coming out from his sincerity and own frustration with the other MPs in the Opposition.

We saw a sterling performance after the three major parties formed  Pakatan Rakyat, which won five states in 2008, and many of UMNO's maiin leaders such as the late Samy Vellu and Rafidah Aziz were trounced out of parliament for the first time! I was in Mozambique in those crucial hours monitoring the news together with a group of fellow Malaysians from all races at a Mamak restaurant in Maputo. Because of the time difference, we were able to read the news only at night as they went online after late late in the evening when the votes were counted. Malaysian time is about 5 hours ahead of Maputo time. I recall saying, "Gosh, even Rafidah lost her Kuala Kangsar seat!" Then someone announced, "Samy Vellu also lost badly!" 

The victory could not have been won if all three Opposition parties went their separate ways. For the first time, we saw that Dr Mahathir's "split- and-rule" failed to defeat Anwar's leadership. 

Today, Penang and Selangor are still under Pakatan Harapan because of this unity within Pakatan Rakyat, not because of individual parties working separately to take on the general election. 

In his early years, Kit Siang as the general secretary lacked the wisdom that working together as a team was the only way to make a credible presence. Anthony Loke should not repeat the same mistake to defect from Anwar's cabinet when the going gets tough. By pulling out from Anwar's cabinet, it will be a big blow on the government of the day, and the repersussions will surely return to haunt the DAP, for causing a big blow to the government and not representing their voters in the unity government. The Unity Government will continue on, as Anwar only have to replace the outgoing DAP leaders.

On the other hand, I think Anthony Loke and the others should work together hand-in-hand with Anwar to deliver all the reforms promised in the manifesto. After all the manifesto was crafted by representatives of all three parties. It is a marriage, where both husband and wife must work in unison, not to 'merajuk' and throw a tantrum, blaming the husband for her loss of seats. Grow up, Mr Secretary-General. I respect you a lot, but a wrong move by you will cost us many years of sacrifice to see this day where the country's economy is slowly coming back together again -- and Malaysians can now stand tall in the eyes of the world. 

At this juncture, some of the DAP leaders are doing a good job. For example, Hannah Yeoh's key reforms in Kuala Lumpur have earned the commendation from even the Malay voters. Building on the ground work done by her predecessor, Datuk Seri Dr Zaliha Mustafa, who turned Kuala Lumpur into a more Happenings city, reviving the soul to a once souless city, if Yeoh has to pull out from the cabinet, this will definitely disappoint a lot of City folks who voted for the DAP in the past. Perhaps, a new minister may cancel the 50 percent discount given to all the hawkers operating in the city.  

Even Housing and Local Government minister, Nga Kor Ming who may not be well-liked by most people because of his mannerisms, has done some good things for which I am also grateful -- he transformed many recreational parks, once abandoned by the local government, into parks that we can now feel proud of. The recreational park in my housing estate, for example, was transformed from a "paddy field" after 30 years (I used to call it by this name because of the pool of water in the field after a heavy downpour). 

When he was Human Resources Minister, Steven Sim promoted TVET to a lot to young people urging them to continue their education until the university level through the TVET pathway. Although I am not fully informed of how the pathway works, I was one of those ordinary Malaysians who used to say, 

"Not every young person is academically-inclided; some are more skills-based and putting them through the university education just to fill the quota is a big mistake, as they would be better off going through the TVET pathway where they can excel, but the government should follow the examples of both Germany and Australia, where the tecnical and vocational innstitutions have been upgraded to become universities. Even Singapore has done this as early as the 1980s. Nanyang Technical Institute for exmaple, is today known as Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore."

For many who asked what reforms do we see, since Anwar became Prime Minister, this is, to me, a very significant reform."

I have to share my honest opinion about Anthony Loke. He may appear to be the most impressive minister DAP has, at least to me in the early months, but to me, he needs to do more to earn my respect. For example, till today, the names of the three MRT stations are still retained despite the confusion they create- MRT Sri Damansra Barat, MRT Sri Damasnara Sentral and MRT Sri Damansara Timur. Most people would assume that MRT Sri Damansara Sentral is the station next to Kepong Sentral station (KTM), instead, you hae to remember Sri Damansara Timur is the station you should stop if you want to change over to Kepong KTM Sentral station. This is the same with Kwasa Sentral where you would assume that it is the station to change to the Putrajaya MRT line; instead, you would need to change train at Kwasa Damansara. One can blame Wee Ka Siong for the mistakes but when Loke is now the minister, he should take heed and make the necessary changes instead of allowing the mistakes to continue on. 

At this juncture, I also want to bring up the case of a husband-and-wife team who founded the Green Pastures Drug Rehabilitation Centre in Puchong. After their retirement, the couple moved back to Seremban where the cost of living is low and the wife has a kind brother who allowed them to stay in the house inherited after their mother passed on. When I met the couple after many years, I asked about their wellbeing. It was then that I learnt the couple does not have EPF to survive on. They are mainly depending on their savings. Thinking that informing Anthony Loke, he would at least send one of his service centre staff to assist the couple in applying for social welfare just like what Dr Wan Azizah, wife of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim did, after i informed her of another social worker who spent some 30 years serving with Malaysian Care to look after former prostitutes and women addicts who agreed to tuurn on a new leaf;  in her retirement, she is now a widow and with very little savings. On learning this, Kak Wan immediately sent her special officer Kuek Zhe Han, who assisted the retired widow to apply and now receiving her monthly subsistence.

Meanwhile, the DAP voter now living in Seremban, went to the DAP office today (April 1, 2026) and was told by a young lady that the service centre does not assist people to apply for social welfare. Knowing well that social welfare deparment is notorious for rejecting applications without giving any reasons, people like the social worker living in Kak Wan's constituency definitely needed someone from the MP's office to follow up closely with the social welfare department. My disappointment is that this retired social worker from Seremban went to Loke's service centre, and Loke should be aware, the young Chinese lady just brushed her off. She just left without any assistance with the applicaiton being made, while Kak Wan's Kuek Zhe Han helped to follow through the entire process. She may not want to put up a complaint, but at least Loke should make an effort to assist in whatever way he could to ensure that this lady and her husband get some subsistence from the Social Welfare Department. Although the current minister Nancy Shukri should have carry out reforms to the social welfare department (I have known the department's way of handling even genuine applications since some 25 years ago when I was actively helping wheelchair-bound people. Nancy's main task is to ensure that genuine cases are given the subsistence government without even Kak Wan or her special officer's intervention, if possible, so that the case in Taman Len Seng could get her monthly subsistence. This is the contrast that I can see between a Madani MP in Bandar Tun Razak and Anthony Loke himself in Seremban. 

I hope with just one more year to go before the next general eleciton, Loke and his fellow leaders from DAP will work harder to resolve issues on the ground told to them. II had once wanted to introduce him to a former primary school classmate of mine, who wished to alert him in advance to potential shortcomings in the LRT lines. However, even after being informed, no action was taken to inspect the depots or warehouses. That's one of the reasons why LRT line suffers from service disruption. The warehouses for the entire LRT network are just a couple of shoplots to store all the engine parts.

One can only wonder where all the maintenance money went to, if the parts are not available whenever there is a breakdown. In fact, train engineers like my own brother-in-law working with a train manufacturer in Germany in the past told me that regular maintenance was crucial to ensure that the trains would not suffer from frequent breakdowns. When he was sent to service the aerotrains at the Kuala Lumpur Intenrnational Airport, I asked him for an honest answer as a brother-in-law, and he told me that he was truly shocked to see all the engine parts worn off, showing there was a failure to carry out the regular maintenance. 

I wonder after Loke took over the Ministry of Transport has he implemented the necessary reforms including inventory control to make sure all the parts are availble in the event there is a breakdown? Are the trains put on regular maintenance to ensure that they are always in their tip top condition? 

I do not know the details enough but I was willing to introduce him someone who could assist him on a voluntary basis, yet there was no interest in finding out what has been happening over the years from someone within the same industry. Sorry, Anthony Loke, you may think you are a minister, but if you do not do your job, when problems cropped up, people need to know what you have failed to do -- and all the whispers that fell on deaf ears. 

Blaming others is easy, but if you have failed to implement the reforms to the public transport system, you have equally to be blamed for any failure by the Madani government. It is not too late to change your ways and withdraw your intentions to pull out DAP leaders from the cabinet. 

It is, in fact, an honour for DAP leaders to be given the ministerial posts. Not even Lim Guan Eng was given such honour; therefore, to withdraw from the cabinet is really an irresponsible act that would surely cause DAP to suffer from greater repercussions compared to the losses DAP made during the recent Sabah state election. 

DAP must learn from its own past misjudgements, particularly when leaders such as Kit Siang believed that the party could perform better by withdrawing from coalition politics. As the saying goes, “United we stand, divided we fall." Remember, the rakyat is watching DAP's next move. Another mistake, DAP will suffer another disaster, probably far worse than the 2004 elections. It will become a party that people say they never learn from their past mistakes.