Frustration with the DAP leadership appears to have contributed to the low turnout at last Sunday’s special congress to decide whether the party should remain in the government or leave.
While a majority of those who attended voted to stay, some delegates who stayed away described the exercise as ‘pointless’ and ‘a waste of time’.
Taman Paya Terubong branch chairman JP Tan said the vote was ‘quite unnecessary’.
The resentment, according to a Perak delegate, was not without basis.
Disillusionment over the party’s role in government
The delegate, who has been with the party for more than 30 years, said he chose not to travel to Putrajaya for the vote because he had become disillusioned with the party since it joined the unity government.
‘I didn’t want to take the time to go, vote and come back,’ he told FMT.
Of the 4,264 delegates eligible to attend the congress, only 2,223, or 52.1%, turned up for the vote. The remaining 2,041 delegates, or 47.9%, did not attend.
Among those who attended, 1,857 delegates, or 88.2%, voted for the party to remain in government, while 242 voted to leave. Another 124 did not cast a vote.
The Perak delegate said the DAP had performed well when it was in opposition, but voters in his area were now struggling with the rising cost of living and the challenges of running a business.
‘But the people in my area are now struggling with the rising cost of living and challenges of running a business,’ he said.
Low turnout at DAP congresses, however, is not unprecedented.
At the 2022 national congress, where elections for the central executive committee were held, 2,179 of 4,149 delegates attended, representing a turnout of 52.5%.
At the following congress in 2025, 3,320 of the 4,203 eligible delegates attended, resulting in a 79% turnout.
Delegates question promises and leadership
A Perak delegate who attended Sunday’s congress but voted for the DAP to leave said many of the party’s election promises had not been fulfilled.
He said grassroots members were finding it increasingly difficult to respond to supporters who wanted to know what the party had achieved since joining the unity government.
Tan said the DAP had waited 60 years to secure a foothold in government and should now spend the remainder of its term delivering on what it had promised voters.
He also claimed that the party leadership had pushed delegates to vote for a ‘predetermined political decision’ to remain in government.
He cited the fact that all 14 state representatives who spoke before the vote supported staying in government.
‘The state representatives who tabled the motion did not reflect the consensus of the other delegates,’ he said, questioning the purpose of holding the vote if the leadership had already made clear which way it wanted the party to go.
Some still want DAP to remain in government
Bukit Tambun delegate Teoh Seang Hooi, who has served as a national delegate for 20 years, said he voted for the DAP to remain in government so that it could push harder on issues important to its supporters.
One such issue, he said, was university admission, which he wanted to be based on performance rather than other criteria.
Not everyone who stayed away from the congress, however, did so because of dissatisfaction.
An 85-year-old party veteran from Penang, who had been involved with the DAP since 1969 and became a member in 1981, said he missed the congress because he was unwell.
The veteran said he was unhappy with the party and felt its leaders had become less connected with ordinary members.
‘Before 2008, we were united. After we became a (state) government, we started fighting each other,’ he said.
However, he added that the DAP should remain in government because it could achieve more from within than from outside.
DAP secretary-general Loke Siew Fook rejected suggestions that the low turnout at the congress, held following recent electoral setbacks, amounted to a form of protest. He said many delegates were unable to take time off from work.
The Perak delegate who did not attend said the time had come for the party’s leaders to make every effort to convince voters that the DAP was doing its best despite the challenges.
He said the leadership must also convince Chinese voters who had lost interest in politics altogether to take the initiative to vote again.
One delegate perhaps summed up the mood best, telling FMT that little could be expected now that the current government’s term was already nearing its end.
‘It will take a miracle to get things done,’ he quipped.
