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This weekend, more than 4,000 DAP delegates will vote by secret ballot on whether the party should remain in the federal government until the end of the parliamentary term. After a series of electoral setbacks, has DAP reached the point where staying in government is costing it more politically, than it is gaining from being in government? On this episode of #ConsiderThis Melisa Idris speaks with Dr Lau Zhe Wei, Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science and Madani Studies of IIUM.
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00:10Hi, welcome back to Consider This, I'm Melissa Idris. Let's continue our discussion about
00:15DAP's National Congress this weekend, where more than 4,000 DAP delegates will decide whether or
00:21not the party stays in federal government until the end of the parliamentary term. However,
00:26the bigger question may go beyond the Congress. What does DAP need to be for the next general
00:31election? Helping us unpack this question, I have with me on the line, Dr. Lau Zhewe,
00:37who is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science and Madani Studies at IIUM.
00:43Dr. Lau, thank you so much for being on the show with me today. How would you assess the state
00:48of
00:48DAP going into this weekend's National Congress? I understand they had to postpone the Congress
00:54a few times to make way for the state elections and now we've had some electoral performance
01:00setbacks. So how would you assess the state of the party currently in August of 2026?
01:07Hello Melissa, thank you for having me. First of all, I appreciate that DAP is willing to have a
01:14Congress to let the delegates to decide on their fate in the sense of whether they should stay
01:19and they're not going to stay, on whether they should remain to be a minister, which come with
01:23luxury perks and so on, or they should leave. I'll say that aid is a gentleman move. So I give
01:28a presentation to them on that matter. However, at a harsher word, I do not think that this Congress
01:36can really help it much. Why? What's the purpose of the Congress? If the Congress would like to get back
01:42at the Chinese support, yeah, it may play a role. But if the Congress is to win back those seats,
01:47especially those in the Christian Milan, in Johor, and in the future elections, even in the federal
01:53level, I have reservation on the on the road to be played in this Congress. Why at the ISA? So
02:00let's go
02:00back to the history a little bit. Sabah State election. Sabah State election, they lost everything.
02:06By then, my argument is there was a warisan over there. A party which their narrative, their
02:12ideology, their direction, and so on, is so similar with Pakatan Harapan. Therefore, for the Chinese
02:17voters to shift their votes to warisan, to me, it is highly possible. But after the state elections of
02:23Sabah, I insist that no risk, the same thing wouldn't happen in West Malaysia. Of course, I was
02:30criticized badly, especially by DAP haters. Now, my argument is back in Sabah, you have warisan
02:37as an alternative. But in West Malaysia, you don't have. So they wouldn't score zero, they wouldn't
02:43be clean sweep in West Malaysia. The landscape by then is the best time for them to have a Congress.
02:49Why? The issue by then was Chinese was distancing themselves from DAP, whether to shift their votes to
02:56another party, which is not so likely, or at least not to come up to vote. So there is the
03:01time when
03:01they need to sustain, maintain back their vote among the Chinese community. So that is the best time to
03:06have the Congress. However, having an immediate Congress after Sabah State election is sort of like
03:12you're not giving a chance for those in power to re-perform and reassess themselves.
03:20So I don't blame DAP for postponing their Congress. Furthermore, they are postponing for half a year,
03:26which to me is making sense because three months is too short, more than six months is like a bit
03:31too long. So I don't blame them for this. But unfortunately, the whole political landscape of
03:36Malaysia has changed from Johor State elections and worst case in New Jersey and United State elections.
03:41Therefore, in this Congress, what's the purpose? If the purpose is to maintain back Chinese support,
03:46yeah, go ahead and it will work. And I do believe that Chinese today, regardless of whether sympathetic
03:53towards DAP or whether fear of past, I do believe that the support will go back to DAP. However,
04:00if you say that you want to win back those seats, the thing is the landscape today is no longer
04:05about
04:06three coalitions. It's a real bit of one against two. Therefore, what can be done through the Congress?
04:12Whatever decision reached through by the Congress, what can it done? What can it do to
04:19to sort of like gain ban the support from the overall community?
04:23Okay. All right. Well, so let's unpack that. So the delegates will be voting essentially whether
04:29they agree or disagree with the motion to stay in federal government until the end of term.
04:35And most surveys and most pundits are saying that delegates will overwhelmingly vote to stay,
04:43to remain with federal government. Let's talk about what that means. We understand from
04:48Howard Lee in my conversation a bit earlier that the CEC will discuss what that could look like.
04:55Dr Lau talked to me about what kinds of scenarios we are looking at and the implications of that.
05:00Let's say DAP chooses to stay in federal government, but maybe become a more vocal opposition. Who does
05:10that benefit? How might that look to the voter base? What are all the different scenarios that you are
05:15playing out in your scenario mapping?
05:19It should be practical. Unless DAP wishes to behave like MCA, so personally to be part of the government,
05:26but they do not behave like part of the government, unless they're going to take the role. But don't
05:30forget, whatever criticism you put forward against the government, at the end of the day we come to
05:35electoral politics, it will come back to you. So in another word, even if you are to leave the government,
05:40the biggest advantage of it is that you do not have to take responsibility of any public policy or any
05:47wrongdoings by the government. But as part of the coalition party, you still have to bite the bullet.
05:51All the criticism is still coming back to you. So I wouldn't see that it would really help a lot,
05:57unless DAP were to leave Pakatan Harapan. Meaning they can strip away, distance themselves from
06:03whatever things done by the government, by Pakatan Harapan and so on. But the thing is, if they were to
06:08leave Pakatan Harapan, it also clearly indicate that you are not going to form government at any level,
06:14except for PNAC. So is that what they want? I don't think so. Therefore, in this Congress, whether to
06:20leave or not to leave, to me, it doesn't matter anymore. Because the landscape has already changed.
06:26However, I do respect DAP leaders for willing to pass the decision power, deciding power, towards the
06:33delegates. Because you wouldn't know what they decide. Although for the moment, it seems that more
06:37people want them to stay, but you wouldn't know what's the outcome. As compared to MCA years back,
06:42when DAP decided not to enter the cabinet. But later on, this decision was overturned by the newer
06:50leaderships. Of course, through their EGM as well. But DAP has leverage, has some power. It is the
06:57largest party essentially in the governing bloc. Could there be a scenario where DAP
07:05opts to remain in federal government? However, uses that leverage to drive a harder political
07:14bargain, to ask for more specific reforms, and therefore encouraging its traditional or re-engaging
07:21its traditional voter base?
07:22I may be hushed in my comment later, but make it like this. I do not see that any effort,
07:29whether you're going to do it through public policy, through reforms, or through whatever
07:33method, even if you're to knock the door one by one, it wouldn't change the landscape anymore.
07:38Don't forget, whatever thing that Pakatan Harapan, including DAP, is doing now, yes,
07:43you can try to attract back the vote one by one by one. But the thing is, the other side,
07:48Parisian National, especially UMNO and PAS, they can easily, doing nothing, staying at home,
07:54the vote will merge. Meaning, whatever effort that to be done by DAP or Pakatan Harapan at this stage,
08:01nothing much can change. If you're talking about winning seats and winning the elections,
08:05so the only thing that they can do, I jokingly say, but I do mean it, is that pray harder,
08:12UMNO and PAS,
08:13they have a crap. That's the only way, because this was the question that asked to me by
08:18how MCA going to, what MCA going to do in order to gain back Chinese support. My answer is the
08:23same,
08:24nothing much. You cannot pray harder that DAP did something wrong, only then there's a chance for
08:28the vote to go back to you. The reason is, MCA by then, and DAP today, or Pakatan Harapan today,
08:34they're basically at a very passive position. You can't blame them, but they're indeed in a passive
08:39position. As long as UMNO and PAS, they can work well, just like what happened in Negri Sembilan,
08:44nothing much can overturn the results. So now what we're looking forward, or I'm looking forward,
08:49will be Melaka state elections. Because if Melaka state elections, they cannot come to a term on how
08:55to negotiate the seats allocation, then yes, there's a chance that they will be trigonified.
08:59But if in Melaka, they manage to negotiate the seats allocations, do you think that they will do the
09:06same at the federal level? I wouldn't say it's guaranteed, but there's a high chance of them to
09:10doing so. So in simple term, as long as there's no three corner fight, Pakatan Harapan have no chance
09:17of winning bigger scale elections, including in any other states. Penang, yeah, I'm confident they can
09:23maintain it. Selangor, it'll be 50-50. The rest of it, I'll say that no. Wow. So are you saying
09:30that if you
09:30were looking at DAP beyond this weekend's Congress, looking at it, say from the perspective of the
09:37next general elections, whenever that will be held, are you saying that there is, what political
09:43proposition should DAP be seeking to build now? I mean, is the game over for them? Essentially,
09:52how would you view the trajectory of this party? Nothing much, nothing much can be done. Like we said just
09:59now, yeah, you can improve yourself by getting the vote one by one, but all this will be redundant in
10:04the eye of merging of words of Parisian national, Pakatan national. So in simple terms, nothing much
10:09can be done in terms of winning elections. But what I recommend is, they have to accept the fact that
10:16they cannot win federal power anymore. So at this stage, while they're still holding power, why not use
10:22their power to defend and protect the welfare of the oppositions. If you realize, all parties have
10:29become in the government before, all main political parties, none of them are basically doing that
10:35what they've preached before that. When they're in opposition, they're making noise here and there,
10:39but when they're in government, nothing changes. The simple reason is, I'm in the government,
10:44why should I give leverage, I give advantage to the opposition? So I believe all the parties having the same
10:49mindset. But now, now is a good time that you're in power, but you know that you're not going to
10:54have power anymore. Why not you started to do things that favorable towards the oppositions?
10:59Doesn't matter, you want to do it in the in the name of selfish to protect yourself or in the
11:05more
11:05noble way of for the good of the society. As a starting point, go ahead. Example number one,
11:13constituency allocations. Put it into constitution. Make it an obligation for any government to give you the
11:18funding. Of course, you can say that, oh, we do not have two-thirds. Doesn't matter. Push it first.
11:23If it fails, the fault is not on you. Second thing, there are a lot of laws that when they're
11:28in
11:28opposition, they make a lot of noise. For example, the MTMC acts, the Dishes Act, PAA, so dozens of
11:35it, amend it. Of course, people can question, well, you change it now. When another person become the
11:40government, they will return it. Doesn't matter because at least number one, you do it now. Number two,
11:45when they're going to overturn it, they have to go through another stage of protest, demonstration,
11:50objection, and so on. So meaning today, what they can do, and I would highly recommend them to do,
11:56in all the press that I've engaged with, is trying to do something that you use wanting it to happen
12:02when you're in opposition. Do it now. So that in the future, when you're in the opposition,
12:08to a certain extent, you can be protected. At least in terms of fairness, in terms of not to be
12:14over
12:14suppressed by the government of the day. Right. Datilao, do you think that in the next
12:19general election, we will still see a permutation of Pakatan Harapan, the current permutation of
12:23Pakatan Harapan? They have to. No, no. Make it like this. Do they have any other choice?
12:30The only possible options, right, will be having Bersatu to join them. In Selangor, it may work
12:37because I've been there, because to a certain extent, this is an influence. But out of Selangor,
12:42can Bersatu really contribute much to them? Not really. And what else party can they absorb into?
12:48Okay, maybe Bersama, Muda, all these parties. But the thing is now, the thing is, the landscape
12:53today is no longer about urban voters. It's no longer about non-Malay voters. It's about the
12:57Malay voters. Unless you are able to like attract pass to join you, or to attract Amnau to join you,
13:02other than that, the landscape will remain the same. Okay. All right. Well, there you go.
13:09Lots to think about ahead of the DAP National Congress this weekend. And I also might add that
13:15the PKR National Congress is also happening the same weekend in Melaka. I want to thank you,
13:20Dr. Lau, for being on the show. Dr. Lau's the way there from IIUM, wrapping up this episode of
13:24Consider This. I'm Melissa Idris, signing off for the evening. Thank you so much for watching, and good night.
13:32By the way.
13:39I hope you enjoyed this episode of TheValoox Radio and the DAP National Congress.
13:39I'm ettΓ€λ€οΏ½
13:40Jayko Halkyuk
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