YOURSAY | ‘It seems loyalty to party leadership matters more than voters’ verdict.’

Marina 'controversy' risks damaging DAP's Johor prospects, reformist image – Liu

PinkJaguar7289: Skudai incumbent assemblyperson Marina Ibrahim's seat change controversy exposes the cold arithmetic behind DAP’s so-called multiracial politics.

When Marina was useful in Skudai, she was projected as proof that DAP was not a Chinese-based party.

But once DAP sensed eroding support and the possibility of MCA-BN making a comeback in a Chinese-majority seat, the calculation changed.

Marina was suddenly considered movable - from relatively safe Skudai to Tiram, a much tougher Malay-majority battlefield, with a statutory body post reportedly discussed as a safety net.

This is why many voters see her not as a respected partner but as a symbolic candidate used for party branding. DAP cannot keep preaching reform while practising old-style seat engineering and political compensation.

If MCA-BN reads this mood correctly, Skudai may no longer be as safe for DAP as it thinks.

Warm Skies: Former DAP politician Ronnie Liu has retired from active politics, but still wants to “kacau” (disturb) the ground, so to speak.

Be a loyal DAP member, then he can bring his concerns directly to the leadership, and they will listen.

Why does he feel the need to stir the emotions publicly? Liu, keep quiet, please.

Marina made up her mind to "retire"; why can't he respect her decision?

Johor DAP chairperson Teo Nie Ching and other DAP members also respected her decision and indeed would have wanted her to stay on; she's young yet wanted a safe seat.

At the end of the day, bear this in mind: no one is indispensable.

GP2025: Liu raises relevant issues. But moving Marina to an Umno stronghold could also be a strategy to cut into the Umno support base.

She might have been successful in Skudai, and her formula of success there applied in Tiram might cause Umno to lose a seat.

If she wins, good. If she loses and Umno loses, then she successfully splits the vote to deprive Umno of a win. She doesn’t lose.

Instead, she gets the chairperson’s job. So, DAP may have a valid reason to have made her that offer.

Skudai may be a safe seat for DAP, and if that strategy worked, the party may win two seats with Umno losing one seat.

Now, we will not know if the strategy would have worked because she rejected the offer. Wonder if she knew what DAP was up to.

Dr Peter Jebaseelan Jesudason: I concur with much of what Liu is highlighting. There is no doubt that DAP has been damaged by its association with Madani, who has betrayed reformasi and the promise of "zero tolerance for corruption".

DAP will not openly admit to this, but in the context of Malaysian politics, which is racially polarised, Malays in DAP are effectively tokens and given a limited number of "fast track" positions to distance itself from the "Chinese chauvinist" image which the Malay political class have cast the Chinese for generations.

DAP does not necessarily see the "Chinese chauvinist" moniker as totally disadvantageous because its support base is overwhelmingly Chinese.

A party which is seen to be disproportionately focusing on the Chinese polity would quite naturally have a monopoly on the Chinese voting bloc.

I believe the idealistic Malays who believed in reformasi and DAP's legacy of fighting for human rights and constitutional supremacy through the example of Karpal Singh have been bitterly let down by Madani because of the evident betrayal of reformasi.

I believe that Marina's premature retirement from DAP politics is a report card on DAP and Madani. The purported offer of a statutory post if she lost in the new seat she was transferred to sounds like an inducement or bribe, and if not illegal, it casts DAP politicians as self-serving and unethical.

Having a respected Malay representative resign from politics who does not opportunistically join a rival Malay party is bad optics for the DAP - it reinforces the "Chinese chauvinist" perception.

A Malay observer at a DAP meeting would note that the lingua franca is, for the most part, Chinese amongst the delegates, making a non-Chinese feel unwelcome and out of place.

Whether or not this is deliberate or just a reflection of DAP Chinese insularity is something the DAP must address to make other races feel more welcome and at ease.

Bahasa Malaysia and English should be the recommended languages at DAP gatherings, even in the foyer during breaks, where members of all races can mingle and exchange ideas.

Tiger62: Looks like DAP has learned a thing or two from Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

No worry about losing a seat in the election because you will be given a seat in government via a senatorship, a government-linked company post or a seat in a statutory body.

DAP is losing its pride and slowly losing support among diehard voters.

Pink: I did say that Malay politicians in DAP are just for window dressing, used as tools to camouflage DAP’s chauvinism.

Marina is pretty, young, urbane, hardworking and non-racial- all that you need to win in a multicultural Malaysia.

The fact that she reads “The Art of War”, my favourite book, is telling. Despite this, DAP sees fit to move her around for suicidal missions where she is going to be slaughtered.

To promise her a position in a statutory body, a position for failed politicians, is the ultimate insult.

DAP is not for intelligent persons like former Bangi MP Ong Kian Ming or pretty women like Marina. It is a party racked by jealousies and vendettas.

PurpleCat9452: Leave the party that still practises feudal politics, where everyone is expected to toe the line dictated by a handful of leaders at the top, before the voters eventually reject you too.

Just look at Ginger Phoong of Sabah DAP. Despite being rejected by Sabah voters when DAP was wiped out in the state election, he was still appointed as a senator, as though Sabah has no other qualified professionals fit to serve in the role.

What happened to meritocracy? It seems loyalty to party leadership matters more than the voters’ verdict.

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