GEORGE TOWN: Pakatan Harapan’s disastrous loss at the Sungai Bakap by-election appears to have cast an unfavourable light on DAP, going by murmurs from local leaders on the ground.
A veteran DAP politician claimed that many good orators from DAP were missing from ceramah leading up to polling day.
This, he claimed, was due to internal bickering between Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow and his predecessor Lim Guan Eng, who is the DAP chairman.
“Both have their own camps. This led to further division among the state’s top and second echelon leaders within DAP itself,” said the senior politician who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“Some strong leaders who are popular with the people decided to skip campaigning.
“On most occasions, we were also not invited to participate in the campaign,” claimed the politician, who had led DAP to many election victories in the past.
On Saturday, Perikatan Nasional kept the Sungai Bakap seat when its candidate Abidin Ismail secured 14,489 votes against Pakatan’s Dr Joohari Ariffin’s 10,222 votes.
The winning majority had nearly tripled from the 1,563 it attained in the 2023 state election to 4,267 votes.
Another DAP party veteran, who also declined to be named, said even the ordinary folk out there were “well aware” of the internal differences within the party.
He said even a Grab driver had spoken to him about the “two camps in Penang DAP”.
“It’s an open secret that DAP is not united like in the previous years. I’m sad to say that the chief minister is fighting a lonely battle,” he added.
He said Pakatan could not rely on the same mechanism to reach out to the electorate.
“Pakatan, especially DAP, must do more in terms of channelling news to voters.
“The low turnout from the Chinese community could be because they thought this seat was not important as the outcome won’t affect the state government,” he added.
PKR’s Balik Pulau MP Datuk Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik, a former state PKR chairman, said the party’s defeat could be due to the low turnout of Chinese voters.
The turnout was said to be 49% compared with 65% in the state election last year.
“It is likely that a segment of Chinese voters wished to convey their dissatisfaction over the diesel subsidy and water tariff hike.
“But as a responsible government, tough decisions must sometimes be made for the benefit of future generations.
“While these decisions may be unpopular, it is crucial that we bear the responsibility for the long-term well-being of our country,” he said.
DAP’s Paya Terubong assemblyman Wong Hon Wai, who was campaigning alongside the unity government in Sungai Bakap, said the reluctance of outstation voters to return to Sungai Bakap on polling day was among the factors that contributed to the low turnout.
“The by-election also lacked a national focus because both candidates were first-timers and not political heavyweights,” he said.
Wong believes that the Sungai Bakap by-election did not spark enough interest as the political equilibrium of the federal and state government would not be affected by its outcome.
He also said locals in Sungai Bakap appeared to be unaware of the government’s efforts for the economy.
“There is an information gap in the semi-rural areas of Sungai Bakap.
“Good economic policies by the government need time to trickle down to the ground,” he added.
