KUALA LUMPUR: A significant “generational change” within the Democratic Action Party (DAP) leadership emerged after its internal polls over the weekend, with the results showing a consolidation of power for Malaysia’s Transport Minister Anthony Loke, said analysts.

They added that the new leadership team would now have to prove its mettle: To at least retain its current 40 federal parliamentary seats or better its showing at the next general election which has to be held before February 2028. 

Meanwhile, one of the party’s former leaders - who is now an academic - believes that the diminished role of former chairman Lim Guan Eng would make the party more palatable for Malay voters. Lim was voted out of his previous position at Sunday’s (Mar 16) election and was instead made party adviser. 

Even so, observers say that the DAP - which garners the most votes from non-Malay voters among Malaysian political parties - would need to open up the party to more non-Chinese, and especially Malays, in order to attract the Malay vote. 

A total of 70 candidates had initially submitted their names to contest for 30 positions in the party’s central executive committee (CEC). But on Saturday, six had dropped out of the race for a spot in the party’s top decision-making body. 

Some 3,343 delegates or almost 80 per cent of the 4,203 eligible delegates from 1,650 branches had participated in the vote for the CEC at the DAP party congress that was held in Selangor.

Lim secured the 26th most votes - down from eighth in the last party polls in 2022 - to retain a place in the CEC. 

But a subsequent CEC vote saw him lose his post as chairman of the party, with Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo, 51, taking over the role. Meanwhile, Deputy Finance Minister Lim Hui Ying - who is also Lim’s younger sister and the daughter of firebrand retired politician Lim Kit Siang - lost her CEC position. 

The Lim family has long dominated the DAP - a breakaway political institution of Singapore’s People’s Action Party. 

Loke, 47, retained his post as the party’s secretary-general. 

Lim Guan Eng, 64, was DAP’s secretary-general for 17 years until 2022 when he handed the reins over to Loke and became chairman.

Before that, Lim Kit Siang was the party’s secretary-general for 30 years until 1999 and then chairman for another five, before retiring from politics in 2022.  

While the secretary-general is the most powerful position in the party, the DAP chairman wields clout because that person leads a panel of leaders who determine candidates that will stand under the party’s ticket in the national polls and state assembly elections.

NEW GENERATION OF LEADERS TAKING THE HELM 

Former deputy minister of international trade and industry Ong Kian Ming said the polls showed a clear mandate has been given to Loke for his second term as DAP’s secretary-general. This would then allow him to put forth an agenda that will be led by the next generation of DAP leaders who are mostly in their 40s and early 50s.

“This will probably result in more younger candidates which are aligned to this new generation of DAP leaders at the state and (federal) levels in the next general elections,” said Ong, who is a former DAP CEC member and a two-term parliamentarian. 

Ong - who is now director of the philosophy, politics and economic programme at Malaysia’s Taylor's University - said that at the same time there is some continuity with the older generation of leaders mostly via the role which Lim will play as adviser to the party.

Besides Loke, those who performed well in the polls include Human Resources Minister Steven Sim, 42, and Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh, 46. 

James Chin, professor of Asian studies from the University of Tasmania, told CNA that the rise of the new crop of party leaders - which include the likes of Loke, Sim and Yeoh - signals a “generational change”. 

“This group believes that the DAP has to move into modern politics because they are part of the government now. You cannot have an opposition mindset anymore,” he said, adding that most of the top vote recipients joined the party between 2008 and 2018, marking a new wave of leadership.

CNA had previously reported that factions aligned to Lim Guan Eng have argued that he should be allowed to play a prominent role in the party because he remains the only DAP leader willing to speak out about the shortcomings in government and other issues.

Before the CEC vote on Sunday, he had also told the congress that while DAP would continue to support Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, it was not a “yes-man party”.

Chin believed that the members would come together after the party polls because they understood that if the party did not perform in the next round of elections, there would be a possibility that Anwar may bring other parties into his coalition.

DAP is part of the ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition led by Anwar. With control of 40 parliamentary seats in the 222-member lower house, DAP is the second-largest after the opposition right-wing Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS), with 43 elected representatives.

Anwar’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) has 31 seats in Parliament, while PH also consists of Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) and the United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation.   

Echoing Chin’s sentiment, Ibrahim Suffian - who is the co-founder of the Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research - also does not think the results of the internal polls on Sunday would split the DAP, as it showed that the party is changing with the times. 

“There is a renewal of the party leadership that makes it more in sync with PH. I think the new line is made up of younger leaders and people who are in a sense less antagonistic and keep any criticism they might have (of the government) behind closed doors,” he said. 

LOKE GAINS STRONGER HOLD OVER PARTY 

Ibrahim also believes that the results of the polls has allowed Loke to have a stronger hold over the DAP now that the transport minister is no longer eclipsed by Lim’s presence in the party. 

“(Loke) will begin to steer the party in consultation with the rest of the central committee. Gobind was never the secretary-general and never seen as trying to be in control of the party. He is seen as a team player,” said Ibrahim. 

Meanwhile, Chin believes that Loke is now the glue that holds the party together and that as the most senior DAP minister in government, his role is to ensure that Chinese and non-Malay interests are reflected in the budget and government policies.

He said that both Loke and Gobind will have to ensure that the DAP keep the 40 seats they have in parliament and to make sure that things like the trouble in Penang between various party factions did not occur again. 

At last year’s DAP elections there, there was internal struggle between Lim Guan Eng who served as chief minister from 2008 to 2018, and his successor as chief minister and long-serving DAP state chairman Chow Kon Yeow.

“Chinese voters are very sensitive to this unity. They don't want to see parties disunited prior to election,” said Chin. 

Meanwhile, political scientist Wong Chin Huat from Sunway University said that notwithstanding DAP's well-managed contest, its main threats come from Malaysia's political system. 

“On one hand, it is demonised as the Chinese bogeyman that subtly dominates the Anwar Government and its prudent approach to avoid escalating conflicts causes DAP to be seen as weak, tamed or silenced, and the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) 2.0,” he said, referring to the once-dominant Barisan Nasional (BN) component party that now only has two federal parliamentary seats.

“On the other hand, DAP may be bonsaied in future elections to hold on to the current 40 parliamentary seats at best and lose some in worse scenarios, which may cause a downward spiral. 

“Despite its impressive performances in election and government, DAP cannot expand because those seats which it contested and lost are now held by its new partners like BN, Gabungan Parti Sarawak, Gabungan Rakyat Sabah and Warisan,” said Wong.

Ong - the former deputy minister - stressed that the clock was now ticking for Loke, Gobind and the “next generation” of DAP CEC leaders to show that they can use the mandate given by the delegates to steer the party amidst a tricky political environment. 

“The party has to balance the interests of its largely non-Malay supporters in voicing out issues of concern publicly and within government and at the same time, to play its role as a member of the unity government to bolster the government’s popularity by the able performance of ministers and deputy ministers and to a smaller extent, the performance of its backbenchers in parliament,” he said. 

MORE MALAY REPRESENTATION NEEDED WITHIN PARTY 

At the same time, Ong opined that a reduced public profile for Lim Guan Eng within the DAP may facilitate greater acceptance of the party among Malay voters.

“This is especially if more capable Malay candidates are fielded in the next elections and the current crop of DAP Malay elected representatives can be seen to be effective MPs and state assembly representatives who are then able to attract more capable Malays to join the party,” he said. 

Chin said that while DAP is predominantly a Chinese-dominated party, Malays have made some headway in the party, evidenced by the two Malay candidates who secured positions in the CEC. 

The two are Bentong Member of Parliament Young Syefura Othman and Bangi MP Syahredzan Johan. In the last CEC elections in 2022, Young was the only Malay candidate voted to the CEC. 

“This is a very positive development. So now the DAP has to follow through and make more appointments of Malays to the CEC,” said Chin.

Of the 30 CEC members, 24 are Chinese, four are Indian, and two are Malay. 

Multi-racial in outlook but predominantly Chinese in composition, the DAP draws much of its support from urban voters in big towns and cities across Malaysia.

Chin believes the new group of leaders wanted to open up the party to more non-Chinese as the population of the Chinese has been falling, including in the urban areas.   

“Many of the urban cities will see a big rise in Malay voters,” he said.  

Separately, Ong said that the DAP polls on Sunday have shown other political parties in the country a way to carefully plan a renewal of leadership from one generation to the next.  

He said that it would be interesting to see how other parties in PH, BN and the opposition coalition Perikatan Nasional interpreted the DAP’s CEC election results through their own lens. 

“For example, would United Malays National Organisation and PAS members also want to see a transition in generational leadership of their respective parties?,” he asked. 

PAS is expected to hold its internal party polls in September. 

Separately, Wong said that the generational turnover of party leadership within DAP - becoming regular every nine years or less - and the quick closing ranks after bitter campaigns make DAP a 21st century party as compared to other major political parties that are wary of internal competition. 

“It would make DAP more attractive to young talents (with shorter waiting time to ascend leadership roles) and would give pressure for other parties to follow suit,” he said. 

He added that the three-term limit in place that was approved back in 2003 for the post of DAP secretary-general as well Penang being the only state that prescribes a two-term limit for its chief minister have now shaped a culture within the party that every top leader has only limited time to realise their political agenda and has to give way to new leaders when the time is up.

“This would shorten the long queue for succession, reduce the need to create powerful factions and lower the probability of all-out factional wars, just to take charge and nominate candidates,” said Wong. 

WHAT NEXT FOR LIM GUAN ENG? 

This of course leaves everyone asking about the future of Lim Guan Eng and the so-called Lim dynasty. 

Ong said that it may be good for Lim Guan Eng to take a page out of his father’s playbook.

Lim Kit Siang had played the role of mentor and facilitator to the younger generation of DAP leaders before stepping away from frontline politics and from the CEC. 

The elder Lim retired in March 2022 after 56 years in active politics but remains an influential figure. 

This, Ong opines, would leave a positive legacy for the younger Lim. 

“But if Lim Guan Eng continues an approach of being seen as ‘sabotaging’ the party from within (as exemplified by his attacks against Chow) and undermining the leadership of new DAP Penang chief, Steven Sim, he may end up being remembered more for his negative contributions than his positive contributions to the party and country,” he said. 

Chin, however, said that while the dynamics in the party have changed, the Lim family still wields some influence.

“Don’t forget that CEC only lasts until the next general election (to be held before February 2028). And if DAP doesn't do well in the next general election, the DAP members may decide to go back to the Lim family. 

“So you should not write off the Lim family. Many people have written them off for the last 50 years but they have always managed to bounce back,” he said.