PETALING JAYA: DAP which has always propounded on good governance, transparency and accountability in its struggle to reach the top of its political history now seems to have lost its way.
Two events in recent weeks showed that this party had used all these slogans to merely win ballots, in other words, in does not do what its preaches.
One DAP slanted political analyst had the audacity to say the these were merely minor cases, compared to allegations of corruption and abuse of power in the past.
What the analyst failed to understand is that there is no minor or major cases when it comes to corruption and abuse of minor.
A wrong is a wrong, no matter minor or major and it is only right DAP corrects its shortcomings from the start before this trend becomes a cancer and consumes the party in the years to come.
The two cases in concern were the awarding of a state project to a firm helmed by the husband of youth and sports minister Hannah Yeoh without open tender. It must be noted that Yeoh used to be the Selangor legislative assembly speaker a few years ago before making a mark at national politics.
Various parties have voiced out their concern over preferential treatment and conflict of interest in Selangor’s selection of Asia Mobiliti and another firm to run a nine-month proof of concept for a transit project in the state.
The firm and state government have maintained their innocence while the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission is probing the matter, after earlier saying that the matter is all above board.
Another incident involved the proposed appointment of Penang deputy chief minister II Jagdeep Singh Deo’s father-in-law to head the state’s freedom of information appeals board, a position the latter has since declined.
The DAP-led Penang state assembly by a unanimous motion resolved to appoint six members to an appeals board set up under the state’s Freedom of Information Enactment 2010, with Jagdeep’s father-in-law named as its chairman. Baldev Singh Gurchan Singh, however, declined the appointment shortly after chief minister Chow Kon Yeow was urged to justify it.
Critics argue that this trend is a start of a corrupt DAP, which is good at lip service and not real action.
DAP sympathisers say that political appointments are a norm in Malaysian politics despite opposition from civil societies and political parties.
Gone are the slogans used by the DAP to uphold good governance, transparency and accountability. Now DAP categorises good governance into a “major and minor” issue.
Observers however feel that DAP leaders have let power get to their head. The party lacks its own policy for its leaders to follow when it comes to good governance and if left unchecked their actions will corrode public support DAP enjoys now.
The party is also in danger of branded as hypocrites as their actions are totally different from their rhetoric slogans of a clean and transparent governance.
Tan Geok Siaw- Petaling Jaya
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