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By P Gunasegaram
Anthony Loke has consolidated his position as secretary-general of DAP, beating back convincingly a challenge for influence and leadership by previous chairman Lim Guan Eng, who flexed his muscles but did not have enough. How much will it change things?
For the future, one wonders what Loke will bring but so far, looking at what he has done, it looks like he prefers to keep all his options open, taking measured steps and avoiding rocking the boat - staid and conservative.
Further into the future, there is a slew of youngsters, especially women, who are coming to the fore, Yeo Bee Yin. Hannah Yeoh and Teo Nie Ching. But one has to wait a while to see differences and impacts if any. Could a future leader be a woman? Perhaps.
A long tenure for Loke
Loke turns only 48 next month. He served one term already. Expect six years more as one term is three years and there is a 3-term limit. Let’s examine some immediate implications first and then take a hard look at Loke’s track record.
Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo got the top spot for the 30 positions in the central executive council (CEC), Loke was fifth, Lim was an ignominious five positions from the bottom at 26. Notable losers included Lim supporter Teresa Kok and Lim’s sister Hui Ying.
DAP polls: Gobind bags most votes; Guan Eng in, Hui Ying, Teresa out
Gobind’s top position may not necessarily reflect his popularity but probably indicates his eligibility for the position of a neutral chairman if the Loke faction won. This is what happened when he was promptly elected chairman by the new CEC.
Lim’s gamble
Lim’s gamble, which saw him losing the still influential chairman’s position, will put him in quite a pickle because the loss of political power - he was appointed a mere adviser to DAP - will result in a rapid erosion of his influence.
Meanwhile, he still faces corruption charges in court related to the Penang tunnel project. It is a definite decline in the fortunes of the Lim dynasty and the “sending off” of a person described a “tokong” or deity to reflect his hitherto revered position in politics.
He brought it upon himself. It was a long-standing tradition in DAP that if you step down from the secretary-general’s position, the most powerful in the party, you keep out of day-to-day decisions.
Instead, Lim as chairman, for all of one term of three years, wanted to play the role of kingmaker behind the scenes and pull the strings resulting in the confrontation with Loke which the former won easily.
Quite a come down for a person who helped DAP and Pakatan Harapan win the 2018 elections and become finance minister, the first Chinese since Tan Siew Sin in 1975, 43 years ago. His most notable role was to totally dismantle the goods and services tax, introduced more than three years before the May 2018 elections on April 1, 2015.
If he had played the role of the late Karpal Singh as chairman, he could have remained above party politics and acted as a moral guardian and beacon to remind the DAP of its purpose. Karpal’s son. Gobind will play that role now.
Under the circumstances, it is fair to assume that Lim’s sister, Lim Hui Ying’s position as deputy finance minister will come under review by Loke at the first available opportunity. It’s an important position and Loke will want one of his people there.
Status quo for Loke
For Loke, the status quo is firmly established after he beat back the challenge from Lim. Can we expect big changes from him? No. He is not the type to rock the boat or make any major changes. He will work with all and sundry, for political advancement.
In August 2022, months before the November general elections and just five months after he became the new secretary-general of DAP, succeeding Lim, he expressed his willingness to work with Umno after the 15th general elections. The elections had not even been held yet..
I criticised the move in this article because even before GE15 was over, he was already thinking about what the DAP will do if it loses - that is, if it fails to take power under the Pakatan Harapan banner. That was hardly the way to go into battle, but it was a practical if incorrect move..
It turned out that Harapan, including DAP, had to work with Umno (and Sarawak’s GPS) post the elections because Harapan did not have enough seats on its own, although it has often been a trying, testing time for both parties which hurled insults against each other regularly.
So that’s Loke for you, pragmatic to the core, willing to work with the enemy if it will keep the party in power, but how much will he push back?
One key concern is that DAP under Loke is not speaking up enough about Chinese and non-Malay rights, bowing deferentially to Umno instead on key issues. That’s not a great reputation to have and he may want to change that perception by appropriate action.
What about that eternal nexus politicians have with businesses? Loke is in charge of the powerful transport portfolio but his conduct - both in the airlines industry and the recent Malaysia Airports Holding Bhd (MAHB) controversy has not been exemplary.
Track record matters most
I said in this article that Loke should resign if he could not handle the issue of airline ticket refunds. “...when asked a question about refunds of airfares for flights cancelled by airlines, a question which involves both AirAsia and its sister company AirAsia X, to the tune of at least RM1.4 billion ringgit, he deftly sidestepped the question.”
“Commentators have expressed opinions that such practices are against the law but successive governments have done nothing about it. Loke did nothing when he was transport minister for 22 months, and he is doing nothing now,” I wrote.
The refunds issue has still not been resolved, two years later. Loke is not a doer. He does not bring people to account. He prefers not to rock the boat and will go with the flow, in the mold of Harapan and PKR chief Anwar Ibrahim
Regarding MAHB and its controversial privatisation I wrote that minority shareholders should reject the offer for privatisation because the offer was too low.
This is what I said about Loke’s role: “A newly added complication is that Transport Minister Anthony Loke has decided to wade into troubled waters to provide buoyancy on the side of the offerors. As minister and regulator, he should have stayed out, but he did not.”
A person’s track record, more than anything else, indicates what he will do in future. Given his age, we will have his style of leadership for a long time and it is not likely that he will be pushed out - he will make sure of that. So, don’t expect dramatic change at the DAP.
(P Gunasegaram is quite cynical about change in Malaysia.)
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