How P Patto shaped Malaysian politics for ordinary people

Thirty years have passed since P Patto’s passing on 12 July 1995.

I still remember the day that the DAP stood firm on its left-wing perch, believing that the poor and weak of society should not be left behind. This was what the late Patto firmly stood for.

DAP secretary general Anthony Loke’s recent announcement that the party would set up a new educational fund under Patto’s name represents the most befitting commemoration for a man who devoted his entire life to fighting for the rights of the ordinary people.

Thirty years on, the DAP remains indebted to him, the late Karpal Singh and Lim Kit Siang for steering the party from its early turbulent formative years to what it has become today. Most importantly, they made the DAP a home for the ordinary people.

I truly miss the after-office hours political chats with Patto. He was, without doubt, an ideologue.

From what I gathered, he had a sound grasp of British new Labour politics of the 1990s, which had a sprinkling influence of trade unionists, Fabians, Clause IV socialists and an exacting large dose of controlling influence from the near-centre socialists – the social democrats.

The social democrats in the British Labour Party sought reform and equity in the capitalist system rather than state ownership. This became Tony Blair’s New Labour manifesto, and the party went on to win a landslide victory in the 1997 British general election.

Patto’s politics also chimed with the European left, which has little or no elitism embedded in it. His close friendship with the then Chancellor of West Germany, the late Willy Brandt, was indicative of this leaning.

Patto displayed none of the ‘elitist’ deposition that the British left or right had often shown. His main political trust was commonality.

After he was released from Internal Security Act detention after the Operation Lalang crackdown, for the next two Deepavali celebrations, he marked the occasion in the homes of railway labourers and Ipoh General Hospital labourers rather than some big shot’s home. I know this because I was with him on both these occasions.

There was practically not one rubber estate in Malaysia that Patto had not visited. Particularly in Perak, I accompanied him to all of them.

In his constituency, he visited all the roadside roti canai stalls and wet markets. What’s more, he often made house-to-house visits.

Under his chairmanship of Perak DAP, I was able to start a DAP branch in Felda Bersia situated in the ethnic Malay heartland, north of Perak. This feat was never repeated elsewhere in Malaysia even until today.

This was the heart of Patto’s politics – being with ordinary people of all ethnicities.

Without doubt, the late Patto, together with Lim Kit Siang and the late Karpal Singh, made the DAP a brand synonymous with the ordinary people of Malaysia.

Finally, politics in the peninsula back then could be summed up simply in this way: the Malays would be likely to join Umno or Pas; the ethnic Chinese, the MCA or Gerakan; and the ethnic Indians, the MIC. But only those who regarded themselves as Malaysians would join the DAP.

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AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama

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