The DAP faced a Hobson’s choice

Picture: FMT

While two political party congresses went on today, where PKR president Anwar Ibrahim outlined a strategy to regenerate popularity for Pakatan Harapan, and the DAP had to select the best road to travel on to maximize their vote in the coming general election, the DAP faced a Hobson’s choice.

A Hobson’s choice is a situation in which you are offered only one option, or the option of nothing at all, so there is no real choice.

In the case of the DAP, the party membership vote on whether to remain within the Madani government, or leave it is a Hobson’s choice. Any decision the DAP makes won’t make much difference to their future electoral prospects.

Over the last few days there has been a heavy social media campaign by certain stakeholders for DAP members to vote to remain in the Madani government. Skeptical commentators claim this is effort on behalf of the sitting ministers to maintain the status quo so they can retain their privileged positions until the next general election.

However, there are much deeper issues that that.

If the DAP leaves the Madani government, then the government could potentially fall. This is in the direct interests of UMNO who using social media to urge the DAP to leave the government. It is probable the Rakyat won’t look at the DAP any more favorably. Some will actually label the DAP as disloyal traitors.

If the DAP remain in government, then they would be committed to prime minister Anwar Ibrahim’s plan to rekindle Rakyat support through economic assistance for the B40. Anwar has effectively 18 months to do this. Any future destabilization of the Madani government would be more likely to come from UMNO, than anywhere else. Its clear UMNO has a plan on this, after the Melaka State election.

The DAP has two new players which will be targeting them in the coming election. The first will be Rafizi Ramli’s Party Bersama. However, Bersama has to show a much bigger spark than it did in the Johor State election, where all deposits were lost. The second new player is former DAP veteran Ronnie Liu’s Party Bersatu Malaysia. Ronnie is shaping Party Bersatu around the original DAP spirit of a peoples’ democracy that would be transparent, fair and provide justice for all under a set of universal values. Consequently, DAP candidates in the coming general election would be competing against a former ghost of themselves that might present more difficulties.

Let’s not forget the MCA that did some damage to the DAP, particularly in Johor.

To survive, the DAP may be better of making a counter intuitive decision of staying within the Madani government and fighting it as a united Pakatan Harapan.

It looks like the DAP is staying inside the Madani government. This is a spoiler on the UMNO strategy to divider the Pakatan Harapan, and also provides prime minister Anwar Ibrahim a strong ally to fight back.