
Let me start this article that I am about to write by congratulating Ms. Teresa Kok, Selangor State Government Exco for Trade and Industry, for being elected as the new DAP Selangor chairperson at the 16th Selangor DAP Ordinary State Convention today. She would be taking over from the previous chairperson Mr. Ean Yong Hian Wah, who is also ADUN of Seri Kembangan. I personally think that it is good to have a woman leading a major political party which is ruling a state.
Nevertheless I would also like to point out that Kok had narrowly won the position of state chairperson with a mere one vote majority against her competitor, Mr. Teng Chang Khim, the Speaker of the Selangor State Assembly.
In the DAP, there are altogether 15 slots in the state committee up for election. This is how an election takes place: the delegates will vote for 15 members whom they want to be in the committee. After the 15 committee members have been elected, these new committee members would then hold another meeting/election to decide who gets what post in the committee.
Now here’s the main issue that I wanted to raise: out of the 15 newly elected committee members, 7 were in Kok’s “Unity Team”, 5 of them were in Teng’s “Rainbow Coalition”, and another 3 were supposedly not aligned to anyone. However, Teng himself has obtained more votes (504) compared to Kok (437) in the election. Unfortunately for Teng, Kok was later elected as chairperson with eight votes by the committee members – Teng has got only seven votes. See that Teng was not able to be the Chairperson despite garnering more votes that Kok in the committee elections?
“That is why all these years I have been pushing for direct election. Today we can see there is a need for it,” Teng later said. He even boasted that he successfully pushed for direct election of office bearers in the DAP Socialist Youth (DAPSY) when he was the leader of the wing.
In my opinion and this is strictly my opinion, I would say that the DAP’s current method of electing party leaders is very recommendable and should continue to be used. An advantage of this method is that capable leaders would have a higher possibility of being elected and would not be removed unlike in conventional direct elections where there would definitely be a losing candidate. Like for example, if direct elections were to be held and Kok were to have lost to Teng, it would have been a terrible pity as the losing candidate, despite being a really capable person, would have been forced to retire early from politics. The current method of electing 15 committee members has ensured that both Teng and Kok were to remain as office bearers and this is indeed good as no talent has gone to waste.
One of the disadvantages with this election system is that, in order for a candidate to get elected into the committee, he will not only have to tell his supporters to vote for his team’s members, he also has to instruct them to NOT vote for any member of the opposing camp in order to ensure that they get as little vote as possible. If it is like this, then the possibility of the weaker camp being totally wiped out is very possible – and this has indeed happened in DAP Perak where 14 members from the Ngeh-Nga camp were voted into the 15-seat DAP Perak state committee.
Thus, under this system, non-aligned candidates, as long as they don’t get into any of the camp’s bad books and stay as neutral as possible, would end being the real victor as they would end up obtaining the votes from both camps (just like how Kulasegaran obtained first place in the previous Perak state DAP committee election and yet was booted out in the election that took place recently). And indeed, the three committee members who got the highest votes in the committee election (Jenice Lee, Hannah Yeoh and Charles Santiago) were all non-aligned! If you attack others, their supporters will not vote for you, and vice versa! And hence, this election system is all about not being hated by anyone! This is an election system that promotes good behavior as those who don’t behave well will definitely suffer the most. This is also why I support this election system! It all comes back to basic psychology!
Nevertheless, non-aligned candidates, even though they may end up with a high amount of votes, by getting the votes of both camps, both camps would expect these candidates to support them when the time comes. Here in the election for the DAP Selangor state Chairperson, assuming that members of the two camps voted for their leaders faithfully, it can be seen that out of the three non-aligned committee members, 2 voted for Teng while only 1 supported Kok. As it was a secret ballot, it is not known who voted for who. But nevertheless, members from Kok’s camp would have felt betrayed by two of the non-aligned committee members. From a tweet by Tony Pua, a member of Kok’s “Unity Team”, “has plenty more respect for dissidents who risk of defeat than those who are 2-face fishing votes from both sides, then stab you in the back”, it can be seen that some are already starting to be unhappy with these non-aligned fellas – and it remains to be seen how long can they stay unaligned, and afloat; or will they end up like Kulasegaran, being booted out completely in the next state committee election.
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References:
1. Baradan Kuppusamy, Now, a tussle for Selangor, The Star
2. Teresa’s group hits coastal areas as election draws near, The Star
3. A. Letchumanan & Wani Muthiah, Indian delegates hold key to election, The Star
4. Teresa dipilih pengerusi DAP S’gor, Malaysiakini
5. Wong Teck Chi & Joseph Sipalan, Pasukan Teresa menang, Ronnie kecundang, Malaysiakini
6. Adib Zalkapli, Neutral Hannah Yeoh may top divisive Selangor DAP polls, The Malaysian Insider
7. Adib Zalkapli, Teresa elected Selangor DAP chief in narrow win, The Malaysian Insider
8. Adib Zalkapli, Mainstream DAP defeats Team Teng, Ronnie Liu voted out, The Malaysian Insider