A widening crisis in the Democratic Action Party’s Penang chapter is drawing the spotlight on a simmering internal leadership struggle and bringing into focus a long-unspoken grouse of dynastic politics, writes CNA's Leslie Lopez.
The recent move by DAP leadership to drop the state’s former deputy chief minister Dr P Ramasamy together with four other former state executive councillors from contesting in the Penang assembly elections on Aug 12 has reportedly triggered internal dissent towardsApart from the exclusion of the five incumbents, the political crisis rocking Penang stems from plans by Mr Lim and Mr Gobind to shake up the state’s party leadership currently headed by Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow.
That controversial proposal to appoint a non-Chinese was, however, nixed a couple of weeks ago because it triggered a hostile reaction within the party and Penang’s majority Chinese community. The Chinese community makes up just under 50 per cent of the state’s voting population, compared with the politically dominant Malays, who account for 39.4 per cent.DAP’S GRIP OVER PENANG
The Penang assembly election is one of six closely followed state electoral contests that will take place simultaneously on Aug 12. The other states that will go to the polls are PH-controlledthat are under the leadership of the opposition right-wing Parti Islam Se-Malaysia . The DAP was established in 1965 as a multiracial party, but it is predominantly Chinese in composition. It has control of 40 seats in the country’s 222-member parliament and is considered to be an important component party in the PH coalition.
Mr Lim’s sister, Lim Hui Ying, is an elected Member of Parliament and the deputy minister for education. Mr Ramkarpal Singh Deo, another elected MP, is the deputy minister of the law and institutional reforms. Mr Gobind’s other brother, Jagdeep Singh Deo, is a senior Penang-based politician who will be defending his state assembly seat under the DAP ticket in the upcoming polls.
Mr Satees Muniandy and Mr David Marshel, two Penang DAP incumbent politicians dropped from the list of candidates, have resigned from the party and have declared their candidacy as independents in the upcoming polls.and the decision by party leadership to field him as a candidate in the state polls has raised consternation among Penang voters. His clout, however, remains formidable.
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