IT IS nothing wrong for DAP leaders to promote bak kut teh as a national dish, especially its vegan variant which coincidentally appeals to the palette of its six-term Seputeh MP and vice-chairman Teresa Kok.
Maybe the next time around they should also promote Indian and Malay dishes to be listed under the heritage food category. This will be in keeping with the DAP’s multi-racial approach to culture and politics.
I am not against the listing of bak kut teh as the national dish. In fact, more food items should be promoted to show the culinary diversity of multi-ethnic and multi-cultural Malaysia.
However, DAP leaders who are so keen to promote traditional food dishes seem rather quiet on the political front.
It seems gone are the days when the DAP fought tooth and nail against government policies that sought to deprive Malaysians of their basic rights.
So much so, the party became the champion of the rights of the dispossessed and deprived Malaysians irrespective of race or religion. This was the pull and attraction of the DAP.
The famous Setapak Declaration was the party’s hallmark in focusing on the rights of Malaysians irrespective of race and religion.
The concept of “Malaysian Malaysia” which encapsulated the DAP’s struggle against ethnic and religious discrimination seems to be the thing of the past.
A new political animal
DAP is a different party today than when it was in the opposition. However, being in the present PH-led government, the party has changed its colours.
It uncritically tends to support the government of the day, no different from the earlier Malay- centred hegemonic governments.
Just because the DAP is in the government, it doesn’t mean that the party has to forget its principles that were hatched in the political struggles of four decades ago.
It is not that the DAP should be the same party when it was in opposition. The behaviour of party leaders is subject to change without being Janus-faced.
Core principles of the party in representing Malaysians should not be sacrificed on the altar of power, positions and perks (3Ps).
This is what is happening to the party regrettably. How is the party different to the politically eclipsed parties such as the MCA, Gerakan and the MIC. Is the DAP MCA 2.0?
By succumbing to the dictates of the Malay hegemonic power, DAP party leaders have forgotten about the party’s proud history of the past.
Compromise. Compromise, compromise
As far as the party is concerned, history is no indicator of the present. If the party could politically accommodate to a tarnished party such as UMNO, then what else can be said about the DAP and its future trajectory.
The Chinese for the want of a better political alternative, might continue to support DAP. But they know in their hearts that DAP can do nothing to halt the political and cultural environment of hostility and deprivation.
In the last state elections in 2023, a significant portion of Indians deserted the DAP to stay away from the polls. Some might have voted for the Perikatan Nasional (PN) candidates.
The DAP has largest number of MPs in support of the unity government yet the party has lost out in getting the crucial ministerial posts. The party could not even convince Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to appoint an Indian Tamil as a minister. So much for the multi-racialism of the party.
The party has basically been blinded by power and material rewards to forsake the continued discrimination of non-Malays in the public service, admission to public universities and matriculation programme.
The DAP leaders’ renewed focus on championing certain food items, wearing the right kind of attire and playing the second fiddle to Anwar and Malay political leaders in the government cannot be dismissed as mere aberration.
These manifestations are occurring in the larger context how the DAP leaders have been defanged to suit the interests of those perpetrators of Malay hegemonic power. – March 9, 2024
Former DAP stalwart and Penang chief minister II Prof Ramasamy Palanisamy is chairman of the Urimai (United Rights of Malaysian Party) Interim Council.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Main pic credit: The Culinary Canon
