Amidst the much more controversial and exciting political party elections in the country at the moment (think MCA and UMNO), DAP will be holding ours as well in 2 weeks on August 23 at Crown Princess Hotel.
Unlike the rather complicated election structure and mechanisms in many of the other parties which are often difficult to understand, DAP's election processes are pretty straightforward. Nominations are directly by branches, our very grassroots, and only 2 nominations are required to make yourself a candidate for the Central Executive Committee (CEC).
The CEC on the other hand is the only position you will be elected to, and it will comprise of 20 elected members. Between these members, the DAP Secretary-General and other relevant positions will be determined.
CEC members are elected via branch delegates. Each branch is at least eligible to send 1 delegate or more, depending on the number of members (e.g, a 26 member branch will get to send 3 delegates, 51 member 4 delegates etc.). Delegates are voted by the members of the branches itself.
Together with many other new faces in the party, I've been nominated for a position in the CEC. There has been quite a few reports in recent weeks on the upcoming elections. 73 members were nominated, whilst 15 have turned them down leaving a record 58 candidates contesting for the 20 elected seats.
Wan Hamidi of The Malaysian Insider wrote "the political tsunami of March 8 general election is going to sweep DAP too. For its coming party polls later this month, 44 new faces will challenge the 29 incumbents, mostly DAP old guards." After August 23rd, will you see "a new era for DAP?"
Jocelin Tan of The Star thinks that "the new CEC will definitely be a lively mix of experience and youth and newcomers like Pua, Liew and DAP's guitar-playing MP for Jelutong, Jeff Ooi, are quite likely to make their debut in the line-up.
If they succeed, they will lend the DAP a more contemporary image that will help the party connect with the younger crowd as well as change the way non-Chinese perceive the party."
Well, come what may, I have every confidence that while the Party may still come up short in several measurements at the moment, we are certainly heading clearly in the right direction and playing our roles in making Malaysia a better place for all Malaysians ;-)
(Oh, and for you guys out there who are interested in the party's rejunevation process, please join us as a member! Email me for details ;-))
16 comments:
DAP Baru has to be careful it doesn't just evolve into Gerakan Lama. All the best Tony, I hope you will win a seat in the CEC. I think you would be helping your case by clarifying your position on party crossovers.
And also, with all due respect to LGE, I think there should be a new Sec-Gen. If LGE continues as Sec-Gen I think DAP will turn into a single-state party, with only an interest (real or perceived) in Penang.
non chinese perceive the party? well...let me tell you this: with the new faces like tony pua, as well as senile faces like LKS and KS, non chinese will always perceive DAP as a chinese-dominated racist, chauvinist and no-ggod party for malaysia. no hope for DAP at all.
It should be interesting. I don't believe for one moment that DAP is free from old style war lord politics. As I understand it membership have increase only by 12%. Perak is an indication how those turf politics is not dead.
The biggest influence on the result will still be the support of Sdr. Lim and MB Lim's as they are the heros of the parties now.
So you are a sure win...
Pls be aware of the newly recruited members and/or newly formed branch (especially those joined after 8Mar08). What is the quality? What are their real interest/motives? Who will they vote?
Understand that MP Chong Eng lost at her branch chairperson fight. Is DAP bringing in quality members? Or some leaders bring in members for the sake of their own interest, ie strengthening theire position?
If u can form more branches then u will have more delegates. "26 members get 3 delegates, 51 get 4."
If i can form 2 branches of 26, I get 6 delegates. Branches with 52 members only get 4 delegates. Understand that there are many new branches being formed, again, after 8Mar08. Heard many in the coastal area of Selangor. What is the impact? or what will be the impact?
"26 members get 3 delegates and 51 members get 4 delegates".
2 branches of 26 members get 6 delelgates while 1 branch of 52 members get ONLY 4 delegates.
Hmmmm... now I know why so many branches being formed after 8 Mar 08. Heard many of them located in the coastal area of Selangor.
MP Chong Eng lost her chairperson fight at her branch in Bukit Mertajam, the constituencey that she represents. She indicated something related to the newly recruited members in a report in Sin Chew today.
What is the real interest/motives of the newly recruited members/newly formed branches?
LOL... Perak is a mess... and even if the membership doesn't increase much... (New branches are not allowed to send in delegates though) It really depends on who the delegates the branches elected...
My take is... the DAP will not be free from the old... for now... because as you can see... the chances of the "new" in the coming congress are quite feeble...
and as long as the "old" doesn't pledge for a change, the party will be rather stagnant after all...
but the party itself should realise that it is caught in a change-or-peril situation... its greatest political rival, namely PKR is riding on a stronger than ever wave (in the name of multiracial which is to me questionable), and the people are demanding more and more democracy freedom and integrity...
shall the new CEC, with or without new face, embrace a certain degree of changes, the DAP will most probably stepping onto the same path, that Gerakan is now stepping...
DAP's election slogan is Change... let's see...
Oh and by the way... the party election system has some serious loopholes itself... the fact that the party's powerful sec-gen, and the other executive positions are elected through only 20 persons (the elected CEC members) is rather undemocratic...
Plus, the 20 person-CEC can then appoint 10 members into the CEC... this could result in a nice breeding pool for cronyism (which a party should avoid at all time)
Well that's because DAP only has 100k members now. Wait till it gets the size of MCA (or even MIC) then see whether it's still so simple.
The fact is the more people you have the higher the politicking temperature.
Hi everyone,
For DAP to live up to its claim of being a multiracial party, I hope that the new CEC would include a significant number of non-Chinese members. More than this, the non-Chinese in the party should have meaningful roles to play. I hope the delegates would keep this balance in mind.
Let DAP be a multiracial and multireligious party which continues to look at contentious issues from a Malaysian perspective. If Malaysians continue to strongly support this, it would put pressure on other mono-racial parties to reexamine themselves to stay relevant!
Have a successful party elections.
"For DAP to live up to its claim of being a multiracial party, I hope that the new CEC would include a significant number of non-Chinese members."
Let's cut to the chase... what's needed is more active Malay members. There is reasonable Indian presence already. East Malaysia lain cerita.
I think it's a stretch for DAP to claim to be multiracial when they don't have a single Malay representative, despite almost 100% success rate at the polls. That shows clearly that DAP simply didn't bother to field any Malay candidates. What most people don't realise is that DAP fielded several Malay candidates in the previous two elections. How come this time there were none? Such a bloody wasted opportunity.
"The biggest influence on the result will still be the support of Sdr. Lim and MB Lim's as they are the heros of the parties now."
I think some people still want to "thank" LGE for the mess he made in Melaka. He may not win convincingly. Frankly I hope he doesn't. He has done an appalling job as Sec-Gen. To put it plainly, at the time when PKR was left barely hanging on to 1 MP seat, it was DAP's time to really reach out to court a Malay support base. But he did absolutely nothing, and now DAP has peaked and has nowhere to go but down. His only contribution as Sec-Gen was to ramp up sales of the Chinese edition of the Rocket.
And anyway, what credit can he really receive for the election results? As they say, if Loh Gwo Burne can win...
We can only give him so much support for going to jail for that girl. LGE should step aside as Sec-Gen.
Jom. Ubah.
DAP use to be a none factor & no profit gain from being a member so member are all sincere public.
But now, wiht more power at hand more people are joining and most are for money and power
HI Tony,
I hope DAP can do more to reflect tht it understnad the malaysians as is with understnading of the mentality and culture and situtation as a result of 50 years of BN rules and policy regardless whether u agree with it or not
As part of Pakatan, I find DAP has not done enough to show they can be part of a new Malaysia hths based on equality and fairness. Perception remains tht DAP is there for the non-Malays only. Even my Chinese and indians friends beleive DAP is very anti malay and chauvinist.
PAS have done its best to attract non-muslims to join its cause despite the fact tht they have yet to drop their call for an Islamic state.Its trying to justify itself to appease the non-muslim.
PKR too has been seen boasting of its multiracial support.They have shown they can match the muhibbah spirit as in BN in a single party while understanding Malaysia
I have yet to see DAP do more to show thts its struggle for all Malaysian particularly the malays and other bumis. Must reflect equality and fairness is not pro-chinese or anti -malay. MPs decision by not wear songkok-uniform in the assembly as a uniform reflects tht it still belives tht Malays are not the majority and integral part of history of Malaysia.I would have accepted if they wore their traditional costume as it can be seen as proud of ones culture rather than anti-malay.Its no big deal actually but its symbolic( Malays have been told tht DAP thinks agreeing to wear malay costume means accepting malay supremacy.).
I have deep respect for Lim Guan Eng and yourself . as I believe both of you will chnage these negative perception of DAP hence ensuring tht racist BN propaganda has no truth when its discussing abt DAP.
I voted for DAP because i believe DAP is for all just like PAS and PKR.btw I am a proud malay n muslim and hope DAP will change for the better.
i hope with d winds of change n YB LGE at the helm .... DAP will work together with PKR PAS n any other "non-BN affiliated" parties to create that 2 party system for our country and nation
cheers
hi tony. while the CEC seems very democratic, i would suggest that the party president/chairman should be at least elected by everyone, instead of this republic-like CEC. maybe, the S-G can be elected by CEC members, thus allowing for a dual-head party, where one is directly voted in, and one is selected amongst CEC.
what branch will i be, if i am permanently based oversea.
"what branch will i be, if i am permanently based oversea."
I'm temporarily based overseas too. If wy kam and I can find another 24 members overseas, can we send 3 postal votes???
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