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By Mihar Dias December 2025
There was a time — not very long ago — when Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi did not merely worry about DAP. He warned against it. Loudly. Passionately. Sometimes apocalyptically.
DAP, we were told, was the perennial threat to Malay rights, Malay power, Malay everything — a political boogeyman capable of dismantling centuries of dominance with a press statement and a Facebook post.
Fast forward to today, and behold the miracle of political rehabilitation.
The same Zahid Hamidi, now Deputy Prime Minister and senior partner in the Madani Government, is calmly assuring Malaysians that the appointment of Hannah Yeoh — yes, that Hannah Yeoh from DAP — as Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Federal Territories) will not, in any way, shape or form, undermine the Malay agenda.https://newswav.com/A2512_Jon6c3?s=A_isq3Law&language=en
Not a racial issue, he says. Inclusiveness, he says. Cabinet deliberations, he says. Safeguards, he says. https://newswav.com/A2512_Jon6c3?s=A_isq3Law&language=en
One might be forgiven for wondering: wasn’t this the same man who once implied that merely giving DAP a whiff of power would collapse the Malay polity?
Apparently not. Or perhaps that was a different Zahid. A younger Zahid. A pre-Unity Government Zahid.
To be fair, Zahid’s current reassurance comes wrapped in layers of bureaucratic comfort food. The mayor of Kuala Lumpur is still Malay. DBKL still runs the show. Cabinet decisions are collective. The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Ministers — including Zahid himself, thank you very much — will keep a watchful eye. https://newswav.com/A2512_Jon6c3?s=A_isq3Law&language=en
In other words: relax, nothing has really changed.
So, that, perhaps, is the most revealing part of the statement.
If nothing changes regardless of who is appointed, then what exactly were we arguing about all these years?
If Malay interests are so structurally entrenched that even a DAP minister cannot possibly “undermine” them, why was the electorate fed decades of racial anxiety in the first place?
Zahid also points to Hannah Yeoh’s track record at the Youth and Sports Ministry, noting — almost with surprise — that there was no racial agenda during her tenure. One imagines this being said with the tone of a man admitting, reluctantly, that the earth did not stop spinning after all. https://newswav.com/A2512_Jon6c3?s=A_isq3Law&language=en
It is a curious defence. Hannah Yeoh did not suddenly become non-threatening because she moved portfolios. She was the same Hannah Yeoh yesterday as she is today — same party, same principles, same passport. The difference is not her. The difference is power.
More precisely, who needs whose seats.
UMNO today does not merely tolerate DAP; it requires DAP.
The language of “Malay rights under threat” has quietly evolved into “trust the process.” What was once framed as an existential struggle is now a matter of Cabinet minutes and administrative checks.
This is not inclusiveness as ideology; it is inclusiveness as necessity.
The irony is rich. For years, Malay voters were told to fear DAP’s intentions. Now they are told to trust DAP’s professionalism — on the word of the very politicians who cultivated that fear.
The problem, apparently, was never DAP.
It was opposition.
Zahid’s assurance that leadership in the Federal Territories remains “intact” because key posts are still held by Malays further exposes the unspoken truth: representation is acceptable as long as real power is perceived to remain safely familiar. https://newswav.com/A2512_Jon6c3?s=A_isq3Law&language=en
Inclusiveness, yes — but with stabilisers on.
None of this is to suggest Hannah Yeoh is unfit for the role. On the contrary, Zahid’s own remarks inadvertently endorse her competence. https://newswav.com/A2512_Jon6c3?s=A_isq3Law&language=en
What deserves scrutiny is not the appointment, but the political gymnastics required to justify it to an audience long conditioned to distrust it.
In the end, Zahid Hamidi’s statement is less about Hannah Yeoh and more about political memory.
Or the lack of it. It is an attempt to reassure Malaysians that yesterday’s warnings were… situational. Necessary at the time. No longer applicable.
The Madani Government, we are told, is inclusive. Which is admirable. But it would be even more admirable if those now preaching calm would one day acknowledge how loudly — and profitably — they once sold panic.
Until then, these reassurances sound less like principle and more like performance.
Thus, Malaysians, having watched this show for decades, are entitled to ask: if DAP was never the threat, who exactly were we being protected from all along?
Mihar Dias (mihardias@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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