The political crisis caused by the standoff between the Malacca DAP leadership and their secretary-general Lim Guan Eng over the Kota Laksamana state seat has stirred and shaken Chinese voters in Malacca.

REPORTERS could scent trouble in the air when the normally smiling-faced Sim Tong Him arrived at the nomination centre in Malacca looking rather tense.

The Malacca DAP strongman, who is often described as the “smiling Buddha” was not his usual self.

The shockwaves from the bombshell that he dropped are still reverberating through the party. He did something which observers said had never happened to the party in any general election.

Sim is standing on a DAP ticket in the Kota Melaka parliamentary seat and as an Independent in the Kota Laksamana state seat against DAP candidate Lai Keun Ban. He has made history but not for the best of reasons.

The reaction from his party bosses was swift and uncompromising – he had not even reached home that day when he received news that the party had sacked him.

Sim is now in a strange place where no politician has ever been and there is only one way to read it – the Malacca DAP leaders are rebelling against their national leadership.

It is the talk of the Chinese community in Malacca. Despite the deluge of nomination news from all over the country, Sin Chew Daily devoted three pages of news and photographs to this issue.

Sim is, after all, a big name in Malacca. Even the Barisan Nasional people like him. The younger reporters know him as “Uncle Sim” and he is the grandnephew of a famous Chinese educationist. He is also the incumbent in Kota Melaka and state DAP election director.

The action on Sim was the unhappy outcome of weeks of wrangling between the state and national DAP leadership over the choice of candidate for Kota Laksamana, the seat vacated by Lim Guan Eng’s wife, Betty Chew.

Chew, who is sitting out the elections, had proposed a male medical doctor who had been servicing the seat while she focused on her role as the Penang Chief Minister’s wife. But the state DAP leaders wanted to put a lady accountant who had just returned from China.

Lim then stepped in and named Lai, who had been a DAP assemblyman in the 1980s but was dropped after one term due to personal reasons. The Malacca leaders were appalled but failed to dissuade Lim on his choice of Lai. The rest is election history.

Despite the sacking, Malacca DAP still regards Sim as one of them, and he was up there on the DAP stage the evening after the nominations to explain the controversy.

It was bizarre! Sim’s posters still carry the rocket emblem and his name is featured on the list of speakers for DAP rallies.

The party’s Malacca chairman, Goh Leong San, stressed that it was the state committee’s decision for Sim to contest the state seat. During the ceramah, Goh asked everyone to support Sim.

It is evident that the Malacca leaders went into this with their eyes wide open and are prepared to face the music.

However, public reaction has been mixed and also a little confused by Sim’s action.

On Facebook, some have condemned Sim, saying “shame on you” and accused him of being “greedy”. They said he deserved to be sacked. When he made his rounds at a market on Sunday morning, a lady became emotional and scolded him.

But those who know the background to the crisis are sympathetic and have criticised Lim for not respecting the views of the state leaders and of trying to promote crony candidates.

One of them even said he felt like giving Lim a slap. Others said that power had gone to Lim’s head and he should contest in Malacca “so that we can teach him a lesson”.

Chinese reporters who are very active on Facebook have been telling their friends to spoil their vote. It is hard to see how Lim can campaign in Malacca after this.

Actually, both camps are equally to blame for what happened. There is bad blood between Lim and the Malacca leadership who had once booted him and his wife out of the state leadership. The latest standoff is Chapter Two of their battle.

But he is the secretary-general and he should have the last say on candidates.

At the same time, he should not push an unpopular choice down the throats of the state DAP. The same thing had happened in Johor and left a bad taste in the mouths of local leaders.

“Strictly speaking, the whole state committee ought to have been sacked. But I’m giving my vote to Sim because that other guy (Lai) does not deserve my vote,” said a DAP insider.

Lim has since extended an olive branch to Sim. He asked Sim to correct his mistake – withdraw from the Kota Laksamana seat and give Lai full support.

But Goh indicated that there will be no U-turn. Lai is likely to lose without the party’s help and that will be a blow to Lim’s standing.

Normally, such internal disputes would have been tackled by Lim Kit Siang. The hot-headed characters in the party respect Kit Siang and usually give him a lot of face.

But Kit Siang is fighting for his own life in Johor. The Gelang Patah contest has not turned out as he had expected and he is all tied up over there. He also had to quell a rebellion among the Johor DAP leaders who were unhappy about Guan Eng’s choice of candidates for some seats.

A local reporter who is close to Sim said he had “never seen YB Sim so sad.” This was supposed to be his last term and it is not the best way to go.

The Malacca DAP gang will probably pull through in the polls but the big question is what will happen after May 5. The party will have to act against the mutineers and that means acting against the entire state DAP committee.

A party crisis is looming on the horizon.

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