MARCH 9 — It is all apparent that the 15th General Election will dawn upon us soon. Given the various hints as well as preparations by Perikatan Nasional, any politician worth his salt must surely be preparing for it.
In Perak DAP, we will be having our state party elections this weekend, coinciding with our state party convention.
While we are encouraged by the many messages of support and constant reminder of how well our DAP ministers (Yeo Bee Yin, Gobind Singh, Lim Guan Eng, Kulasegaran, Teresa Kok & Anthony Loke) performed in the 22 months in government, we remain cautious about the hype and are constantly planning ahead to expand our reach.
However, in Perak since 2008, although having achieved significant success in capturing urban seats, the State leadership under the control of Chairman Nga Kor Meng & Advisor Ngeh Koo Ham had not made any real progress in reaching out to rural areas. Our grassroot members and analysts liken the rural areas to be deciding factors in forming a stable state government. When BN won the previous Cameron Highlands by-election, it became very clear that we must re-strategise and make headway where our current state leadership has failed.
Constantly referred to as the abang-adik party by outsiders, in particular political parties that incessantly disparage DAP in matters of racial and religious sentiments, we have decided to offer ourselves as agents of change in hope that Perak DAP can be seen in better light.
To do this, we must change from within our state party component, to reach out to our members and be an all-inclusive party. Through defections we lost two state seats, to Bersatu. Through exclusion, we lost another seat. We cannot afford to ‘drop’ any of our members who have worked hard for the party just because they asked questions. We cannot afford to exclude our very own ADUNs just because they are perceived as ‘not being on our side’.
There is a Malay saying ‘Ludah ke langit, timpa di muka juga’
Perak DAP needs to be reinvigorated with new ideas and new blood, to forge unity and not divide any further.
By offering ourselves, we aim to challenge the mindset of ‘old knows best’ and embrace the spirit of ‘UBAH’ much to what the general populace did in voting Pakatan Harapan for GE14. We aim to introduce new ideas to win over rural support and move away from the politics of hate and rhetoric. The name calling must cease. We have the rakyat to care for, and we can only proceed if we first get the support of our own house.
We have been played the bogeyman for too long by our counterparts, especially since our chairman himself played into the hands of the opposing sides. Lets move ahead, and change from within.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
