Chinese-based parties in Malaysia — MCA, Gerakan, and now increasingly DAP — all share a similar habit.
I call it the “I will prove I deserve to lead you by doing a good job” syndrome.
Before they become ministers, leaders of Chinese based parties in Malaysia will start of by presenting themselves as fierce champions of their community. They will fight passionately for Chinese schools, equal rights, minority concerns, UEC recognition — the things their supporters care about. But the moment they enter the Cabinet, something strange happens. They transform from community leaders into administrative managers. Suddenly, their political passion becomes an obsession with overloaded lorries, clean toilets, municipal efficiency and bureaucratic tidiness.
Why does this happen?
Because many Chinese leaders seem to believe this:
“If I just perform well as a minister, all Malaysians, regardless of whether they are Malays, Indians and Chinese, will all see my capability and naturally accept me as a national leader.”
This belief is deeply naïve — and completely disconnected from how humans actually behave.
People do not reward competence with leadership
If people naturally elevated the most capable individuals to leadership, the country would be run by Indonesians, Bangladeshis and Nepalese foreign workers, who likely know how to build, clean and run logistics far more efficiently than most of our ministers.
And if you owned a company, you wouldn’t hand the CEO role to the most capable employee.
You would hand it to your son or daughter.
Why?
Because people elevate those they identify with — not those who perform the best.
If you don’t naturally share identity with someone, the only way to make them identify with you is to win, not to serve.
Serve them, and they will treat you as a servant.
Win, and even people outside your identity group might start to identify with you, because humans admire strength and victory, and will always find it easy to identity with those that they see as champions and victors, even if the champion and victors don't naturally belong to their identity group.
DAP’s problem today is MCA and Gerakan’s problem yesterday
MCA and Gerakan were also filled with “good ministers” who worked hard, managed well, and tried to impress Malaysians through efficiency.
But Malaysians did not reward this by seeing these former MCA and Gerakan ministers as national leaders.
Non-Chinese didn’t really notice their good work or mostly ignored their performance, just like how you would ignore the performance of your workers who is always on time and do their job well. When people see you as a servant, they won't notice the good job that you do - they will only notice you if you make a a mistake or underperform in your job.
The Chinese, on the other hand, were even harsher on these ministers , because they saw the desire to serve by these ministers as a sign of weakness, servitude and subservience to the majority.
No matter how smoothly you run your ministry, there are probably thousands of people who can do that job just as well. Being a competent minister is like being a good bank manager or a good school principal — respectable, yes, but completely replaceable.
No one becomes a national leader by being replaceable.
This is why the strategy of “If I quietly do my job well, people will notice” is doomed.
People don’t notice what works.
People only notice failure — like you only notice your Grab driver when he delivers late.
Worse, your own ethnic base will punish you for appearing like a servant rather than a fighter.
Why majority leaders don’t suffer from this problem
When a majority leader becomes a minister and serves everyone, his people see this as magnanimity, not servility.
If it comes to that Akmal Saleh someday becomes a minister and tones down his racial rhetoric to serve all Malaysians, Malays will not call him a sell-out. They will call him berjiwa besar — a big-hearted leader. And Chinese and Indians will appreciate him for no longer attacking them.
But if a Chinese leader takes the same route as Akmal Saleh, his own community will feel betrayed, and the other communities will barely notice his effort.
In life, things are not equal.
If Elon Musk or Khabib Nurmagomedov gives you their seat or gets you a glass of water, you think, “Wow, what a humble and magnanimous person.”
If a Bangladeshi or Nepali worker does the same, you think,
“Well… that’s his job.”
The exact same action, two different meanings — based purely on status.
DAP’s real crisis: they are serving Malaysians instead of championing Malaysians
DAP today has fallen into the same trap as MCA and Gerakan.
They are not championing Malaysians.
They are serving Malaysians.
And when you serve, people see you as a servant — polite, hardworking, efficient, and entirely unworthy of leadership.
The Indians and the Malays won’t resent that.
But the Chinese electorate will.
Because nobody wants to follow a leader who used to fight for his community, and suddenly becomes a meek administrator serving everyone while being appreciated by no one.
The missing piece: DAP does not know how to champion “Malaysia”
Anthony Loke, Nga Kor Ming and others know how to champion Chinese interests.
They know how to fight for things that have concrete meaning:
Chinese schools, UEC recognition, fair civil service representation.
But they don’t know how to champion a Malaysian cause, because nobody in Malaysia knows how to champion a "Malaysian cause” .
So instead of championing Malaysia, they try to serve Malaysia — and end up appearing like servants instead of leaders.
Until a minority party learns how to champion Malaysians rather than serve Malaysians, they will continue losing respect the moment they gain power.
And that, unfortunately, is the political trap DAP, like all the other Chinese based political party before it, is walking straight into.
We can see that it has walked into the trap, because the Chinese voters, judging from its performance in Sabah, are washing their hands on DAP , because they see it as a being subservient and weak.
NOTE: Although I am only mentioning Chinese based minority parties here, I am by no means trying to suggest that other minority based parties, like the Indian based parties, are in anyway better.
I am only specifically mentioning the Chinese based parties like DAP and MCA, because only they have a tendency to fall into the "I will serve you to prove my worthiness as a leader” trap.
Indian parties on the other hand, are worse.
The Chinese Based parties "I will serve you to prove my worthiness as a leader” method might not work, but at least the Chinese based parties have a method.
Indian parties don't even have a method. Nobody, not even the Indians, know what the Indian based parties are doing to prove their worthiness as leaders for Malaysians.
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