Malaysia: Political hypocrisy is rife in DAP says an ex-member of the party

MALAYSIA: Malaysia’s political scene is getting more fragmented with members slamming the doors on their parties at a regular rate.

One of the latest was Marina Ibrahim, an elected representative of the Democratic Action Party (DAP) who resigned just before the Johor state assembly was dissolved.

For a reason, she said the party wanted her to contest in a different constituency, something she did not agree to, but this week, she revealed more information on why she was disappointed with the party’s leadership, saying in a Facebook post that it was the manipulation of the people’s trust and political strategies that “prioritise personal interests over principles” that contributed to her leaving the party.

She said she had a series of meetings with several party leaders that exposed internal plans to manage public perception regarding the issue of pardoning former Prime Minister Najib Razak ahead of the Johor State Election.

“Every time an election draws near, the Najib issue will definitely be played up again. Talk about something else, lahh. Vote BN = save Najib,” she wrote, hoping the DAP leaders who met her to discuss the matter would still have a bit of shame when reading her posting.

“That is, if they still have any shame left. Many say I betrayed the struggle. Many also say I threw a tantrum because I was moved to a different constituency, but they do not know,” she said in the social media post.

She added that the leaders were previously vocal against Najib, but today, they are in power, and they are saying it is not wrong to pardon Najib or put him under house arrest for his past contributions.

According to her, the leader also expressed hope that the pardon would only be granted after the General Election to avoid damaging public trust, particularly among Chinese voters, toward the party.

“The leader also talked about how they would manage perception during the Party’s Special Congress on July 12 (now postponed to August) to restore the confidence of the Chinese community because they do not want the Sabah incident to repeat itself.

“How there would be leaders willing to resign if Najib receives a pardon too early but, at the same time, will still declare support for the existing Federal Government? In my view, all of that resembles more of a political performance,” she said.

She questioned the sincerity of the DAP leadership regarding the cooperation with BN in Johor.

Saying that Umno’s stance on the Najib issue has been known for the past four years, she said if the issue was a “red line” that could not be compromised, DAP should have initiated a separation from Umno in Johor from the very beginning, considering that Johor was not led by a Unity Government.

Marina announced her retirement from politics last May after refusing to be the candidate for a different seat.

She said she left politics because she could no longer align her personal principles with what she described as hypocrisy.