By Nehru Sathiamoorthy
I am not at all surprised that, according to Ronnie Liu, a former DAP strongman, the spectre of a permanent split is looming over the DAP.
I am not surprised – because the American social critic Eric Hoffer provided a frame of reference in 1951 to describe such a situation.
A movement is pioneered by men of words, materialized by fanatics and consolidated by men of action. It is usually an advantage to a movement, and perhaps a prerequisite for its endurance, that these roles should be played by different men succeeding each other as conditions require. When the same person or persons (or the same type of person) leads a movement from its inception to maturity, it usually ends in disaster.
When the DAP was chiefly known as the party that stood against the government, it was led by men of words and ‘fanatics’.
In his career, Lim Kit Siang has written some 10 million words. Considering that an average novel is about 100,000 words long, he has probably written the equivalent of a hundred novels throughout his career lasting 50-plus years. This makes him the most prominent “man of words” who pioneered the DAP in its early years.
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As for ‘fanatics’ or true believers who stood against the odds for the ideas and beliefs of the DAP (which people like Lim had expressed in words), I suppose that could refer to the likes of Ronnie Liu. (Like Hoffer, when I say fanatic, I mean a true believer or a diehard supporter of a belief, ideology, leader, party or movement. It is not meant pejoratively to describe someone as a violent or narrow-minded person, as how it is often used today.)
Liu, a former DAP leader left the party in 2023, right after the DAP became part of the “unity government”. He now warns that the spectre of an irreparable split now looms over the DAP.
It was true believers like Liu who characterised the profile of the DAP’s membership during the years when it served in opposition to the government of the day.
The DAP’s true believers, like Liu, were the ones who fought for the DAP when fighting was hard and victory was nowhere to be seen. These were the “die first, surrender later” sort that stood against the government of the day even when defeat was certain.
True believers have a personality trait of taking delight in making sacrifices. It is because of the previous generation of the DAP’s true believers that the party could continue to exist and survive, even when it was facing a vastly superior opponent for decades.
These true believers were willing to fight on just “rice and water” – or in the DAP’s terms, with whatever little they collected from the donation tins they passed around during their ceramah rounds. They sacrificed their own money, resources, energy, time and sometimes even freedom for the sake of their beliefs and the party.
Since 2022, however, the DAP has become a part of the unity government. Thus, it is likely that the party will have to be consolidated by what Hoffer refers to as “men of action”.
Men of words deal with concepts and theories, rather than the reality of their times. Their concepts or theories are often made for the purpose of bringing down, updating or even replacing the reality of their times.
‘Fanatics’ or true believers are those who fight against the reality of their times, to bring about the reality they believe in, as propounded by their men of words.
Men of action are those who will shape the new reality of the times – after the true believers have won the fight and brought down the status quo. They can persuade themselves to make compromises in order to make something happen, rather than be sticklers for their beliefs and have nothing to show for them. These are the sorts who have resigned themselves to accepting that they need to wade through muddy waters to produce results.
While the men of words and the true believers will not even break bread with those they oppose, the men of action can even persuade themselves to ‘sleep in the same bed’ as those they oppose, while dreaming different dreams.
Applying this to the DAP, I see a man of action in the likes of Anthony Loke and the other Young Turks of the party who are currently the most high-profile party members with important government posts. They are the ones who realise they will have to bend or perhaps even disregard some of the party’s foundational principles in order to cooperate and strike a deal with those outside their belief system and party. They do this so they can help construct a Malaysia according to the DAP’s ideals – even if the Malaysia they construct is not exactly like the one their party had envisioned and even if they have to cooperate with those that the previous generation in the DAP fought against.
According to Hoffer, a movement needs to be led by different people succeeding each other as a condition for its continuity and endurance. He cautions:
When the same person or persons (or the same type of person) leads a movement from its inception to maturity, it usually ends in disaster.
Applying this to the current-day DAP, what it means is that, now that the party is part of government instead of its opponent, the party’s leadership mantle needs to be passed to men of action rather than remain with true believers.
The DAP’s chief man of words, Lim Kit Siang, seems to have gracefully accepted his time is up. He retired on his own volition in 2022, and after he retired, he seems to be content to let the next generation of leaders chart the course of the party, without getting in their way.
The DAP’s true believers, however, according to Liu, might not be riding to the sunset as gracefully as Lim.
Liu is now warning of an irreparable split in the DAP and urging the party’s 4,000 delegates not to vote for “arrogant individuals who may damage the party’s image” during the coming party polls. He is also demanding that the new leaders not change the character of the DAP now that it is in government to avoid compromising the party’s fundamental struggle.
All this is symptomatic of a conflict between the true believers and the men action in the DAP.
According to analysts, there are currently two factions in the DAP; one led by Loke and the other by Lim Guan Eng.
In my reading, using Hoffer’s frame of reference, the faction led by Loke represents the men of action while the one led by Guan Eng represents the true believers.
If they do not sort out their dispute well, then – like Hoffer predicted in his framework – the next phase of the DAP’s evolution could end in disaster.
Nehru Sathiamoorthy follows the Aliran website.
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