DAP’s July deadline: Principles or political theatre?

Kua Kia Soong

Every few years, like the Southwest Monsoon, the DAP announces a coming storm.

This time, it is a July deadline. Decide, its leaders say, whether to stay in the government or leave. Principles are at stake. The nation must wait.

I asked a friend if he would place a bet on the outcome of this latest melodrama.

He sent me a video of a popular Chinese karaoke song: “I didn’t intend to go; I wanted to stay…”

So, will July bring thunder – or just another press conference with solemn faces and carefully ironed batik?

Allow me to refresh your memory so we can see whether principles or opportunism wins in July.

Rhetoric in opposition, amnesia in government

Since 2008, the DAP has perfected a political art form: revolutionary rhetoric in opposition, administrative amnesia in government. The journey from street-corner indignation to air-conditioned cabinet meetings has been nothing short of transformative — not for the nation but for the party. I called it the ‘MCA-fication’ of the DAP.

Back when the DAP was storming state governments in Penang and Selangor, it spoke in the accents of reform. Local government elections were a sacred democratic right. Anti-corruption was non-negotiable. “Malaysian Malaysia” – equal citizenship – meant dismantling race-based policies. Social democracy was not a slogan but an identity. Press statements thundered, forums flourished and slogans soared.

But power, as history teaches, is the most efficient editor of principles.

When DAP leaders were finally sworn into federal cabinet posts after the fall of Barisan Nasional, a curious thing happened: silence became strategy.

Coalition partners with long shadows trailing behind them were suddenly treated as colleagues, not problems. The moral absolutism of opposition matured into the ‘nuanced pragmatism’ of coalition realities.

The once uncompromising anti-corruption crusaders became enthusiastic students of political coexistence.

The causes that went quiet

The death of Teoh Beng Hock was once a defining issue for the DAP – an injustice etched into banners and speeches. After all, Beng Hock was an aide to a DAP state assembly member.

Yet once inside Putrajaya, the urgency faded, and the demand for accountability softened into procedural patience. The martyr of reform became an uncomfortable memory at official dinners.

For decades, the DAP insisted that democracy begins at the grassroots. Restore local council elections! Decentralise power!

Once in government? Silence. Committees. Studies. The familiar refrain: “Not the right time.” Apparently, democracy has a very delicate timetable.

Malaysia’s migrant workers remain among the most exploited in the region. The DAP once spoke of human dignity across borders.

Yet systemic abuses persist. Raids and detentions continue. Structural reform remains elusive. Solidarity, it seems, has passport restrictions.

One DAP leader even reminded the government that migrant workers need not be paid the official minimum wage – since, apparently, that is the practice in Singapore.

Ethnic-based policies in public procurement, education and civil service appointments were once described as antithetical to meritocracy and equality.

In government, they became ‘sensitive matters’. The vocabulary shifted from ‘abolish’ to ‘manage’. Equality deferred is equality denied – but apparently also politically inconvenient.

Recognition of the Unified Examination Certificate was once non-negotiable. But after electoral victories and cabinet appointments, a study here and a task force there meant the issue was quietly shelved. The chalkboards remain unchanged.

The DAP’s historical claim to social democracy would make even moderate European parties blush – though perhaps from confusion. Where are the redistributive tax reforms? Where is the structural challenge to oligarchic concentration of wealth? Where is the labour-centred legislative push?

To this question, a DAP finance minister famously said: “We don’t want to spook the rich!”

The DAP must know that technocratic management is not socialism, and balanced budgets are not social justice. I have written about this “withering away of socialism” in the DAP.

The Mahathir moment

Perhaps the most striking example of political elasticity came when the DAP leadership found itself defending its proximity to Dr Mahathir Mohamad after 2018.

When Mahathir appointed a veteran DAP leader’s son as finance minister that year, critics raised eyebrows.

The response from the DAP leader? “I never said Mahathir was corrupt.”

It was a masterclass in linguistic gymnastics. Principles were not abandoned; they were rephrased.

And now the party announces a deadline. If certain conditions are not met by 12 July, its leaders will decide whether to resign from all government posts.

The public has seen this film before: dramatic build-up, grave warnings, closed-door negotiations, a ‘collective decision’, and then continued participation. Cue applause. Roll credits…

Principles or opportunism?

The DAP insists it must remain inside to ‘reform from within’. Remember how the party used to ridicule the Gerakan ‘entrists’ who wanted to ‘reform the Barisan Nasional’. “Hahaha, they have ended up being ‘reformed’ by the BN!” Yet after years within this ‘unity government’, what structural reform can the DAP claim as truly transformative?

If the July deadline passes without an exit, it will confirm what many already suspect: the deadline is not for the government but for the party’s credibility.

If the party does leave, it will raise an even more uncomfortable question: why did it take so long?

In Malaysian politics, deadlines are rarely endpoints. They are negotiation tactics.

And principles? They are most eloquent when safely seated on the opposition benches.

Will durians still grow in July?
Will blossoms still bloom from each tree?
Will leaves still stay green in December
Is it then that our land will be free?

Dr Kua Kia Soong, a former MP, is the director of the human rights group Suaram.

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