DAP should show courage to face UMNO heads on and also decisively leave the toxic PKR.
Johor UMNO has repeatedly announced that Barisan Nasional alliance will go solo, will contest all 56 seats in the next Johor state election, and will leave no space for cooperation or negotiation with Premier Anwar Ibrahim’s coalition called Pakatan Harapan. In short, UMNO-led Barisan Nasional (BN) has declared war on Pakatan Harapan (PH), which consists of PKR, DAP and Amanah.
Exactly which part of UMNO’s decision to go independent that Pakatan Harapan does not understand? Yesterday, DAP Youth – obviously under instruction from its top leadership – tried very hard to remind UMNO about the support the Malay nationalist party received from Pakatan Harapan after UMNO led Barisan Nasional to its worst-ever performance in the November 2022 General Election.
DAP Youth recalls how UMNO, after winning just 26 parliamentary seats in the 15th General Election, had relied on Pakatan Harapan to fight back against the Opposition Perikatan Nasional coalition’s green wave to ensure UMNO does not diminish further. Clearly, telling the sobbing story was DAP’s desperate attempt to solicit appreciation, hoping UMNO would make a U-turn out of gratitude.
Shifting to a higher gear, hoping the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) would be grateful and return the favour, DAP Youth pointed to the six state elections in August 2023, where UMNO was given “safe seats” to contest due to the alliance of Pakatan-Barisan, and how UMNO assemblymen were roped into the Pakatan-led Selangor and Penang state governments.
“In 2023, the alliance between PH and BN, as well as the seat allocations, prevented seat clashes and revived UMNO to ensure it remains relevant in Malaysia’s political arena. However, some in UMNO have forgotten our help. With the unity government facing global economic challenges, there are those who choose to destabilise the Negeri Sembilan government,” complained DAP Youth.
“There are even those who want an ‘all-out war’ in Johor, as though they do not hold senior positions in the unity government. If some parties are inclined to become backstabbers and to undermine the spirit of the unity government, then DAP Youth urges the prime minister to dissolve Parliament immediately and hold the 16th General Election concurrently with the other state elections,” – said the youth wing of the Democratic Action Party.
In retaliation, UMNO notorious mobster – Youth Chief Akmal Saleh – has immediately challenged DAP Youth to withdraw support for state governments led by Barisan Nasional and to push its leaders to dissolve Parliament to prove its political strength. Akmal also reminded DAP not to forget that without BN’s support, Pakatan Harapan might not have been able to form the federal government.
Akmal even mocked DAP, and Pakatan Harapan, for that matter, not to be terribly “panicked and nervous” over Johor UMNO’s intention to go solo. Like it or not, Akmal was right to insult DAP Youth under the leadership of Woo Kah Leong for not only being spineless, but for annoyingly whining, yapping, and bitching rather than decisively withdrawing support for Barisan Nasional.
Yes, it was already bad that PM-obsessed Anwar Ibrahim chose to keep quiet for the past three years despite being bullied by UMNO. To cling to power, the fake reformist and president of PKR (People’s Justice Party) had shamelessly pardoned crooked ex-PM Najib Razak and thrown away corruption charges for every single UMNO corrupt leader, including party president Zahid Hamidi.
It becomes worse when the Democratic Action Party (DAP), the biggest party in not only Pakatan Harapan but also the entire Madani government, behaves as if it has only four parliamentary seats when it actually has 40. It was DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke Siew Fook’s cowardice that encouraged Akmal’s persistent bullying, mocking and insulting of DAP and the Chinese community.
In terms of politicking, the DAP-Chinese are no match for UMNO-Malays. If DAPSY – DAP Socialist Youth – thinks by telling a sobbing story of how Pakatan Harapan had saved UMNO from destruction and hopes UMNO would repent and become the good guy, then Loke and Woo are stupider than they look. Nobody asked PH to save the corrupted BN back in 2022.
On the contrary, the DAP Youth’s pathetic move is seen more like begging UMNO not to abandon DAP, PKR and Amanah than a tactical warning to put UMNO in its place. The more PH beats around the bush without meaningful actions, the more BN calls its bluff. In fact, the more DAP cries and whines with empty threats, the more UMNO wants to insult DAP and go solo.
Akmal did not lie when he said both PH and BN were using each other. And it’s true that after the 2022 general election that produced a hung parliament, neither Pakatan Harapan (82 MPs) nor Perikatan Nasional (73 MPs) could form a government without Barisan Nasional’s 30 MPs in the 222-seat Parliament. It was PKR and DAP’s own foolishness to ask how high whenever UMNO told them to jump after forming the unity government.
Nobody asked PKR and DAP to give “safe seats” to UMNO to contest in the 2023 six state elections. Again, it was purely PKR and DAP’s stupidity at its finest, knowing very well that a leopard never changes its spots. Begging UMNO to be grateful and not go solo is like lecturing a carnivorous lion to eat salad and not meat. UMNO is born to control, dominate, corrupt, bully, betray, be racist and whatnot.
Just because Pakatan Harapan was dumb enough to invite UMNO into the Selangor and Penang state governments does not mean UMNO must be equally dumb to invite PKR and DAP into the Johor state government. Instead of repetitively issuing empty threats like a broken record, why don’t Pakatan Harapan grow a spine and withdraw support for UMNO governments in Perak and Pahang?
And it’s not UMNO-Malays’ fault that Anthony Loke was euphoric when he made national headlines by becoming the first DAP leader in history to attend the UMNO annual assembly in 2023. He thought he was incredibly popular among UMNO-Malays and was absolutely cocksure that BN and PH would continue to cooperate in future elections like two intimate partners.
To UMNO, it was just a flirting game or a one-night stand, but DAP took it too seriously and emotionally and appears to have fallen in love with UMNO. Now UMNO wants to break up, DAP Youth is wailing in great sorrow and accuses UMNO of being an unfaithful and ungrateful partner. UMNO has been playing DAP like a yo-yo without Loke realising it.
Even if silly Loke sacrificed his most treasured asset and converted to Islam, UMNO-Malays would still reject him and refuse to transfer votes to DAP. Not sure what Loke has been smoking for the past 3 years, but the delusional DAP chief has been wasting valuable time and resources trying to impress Malay voters who would never trust DAP after 60 years of UMNO’s demonisation.
Worse, Loke, who thinks highly of himself, made the wrong bet by ordering DAP to keep silent and pretend nothing happens whenever Akmal terrorises, bullies and threatens the ethnic Chinese. He thought that by hiding, DAP could win more Malay votes than losing Chinese votes due to the popular mantra – “If the Chinese community doesn’t vote for DAP or Anwar, who else can they vote?”
Today, DAP is like a cat on hot bricks as it has failed to win over Malays, whilst at the same time losing Chinese support. The November 2025 Sabah state elections saw DAP suffer a major setback after it lost all the seats it contested. Even then, Loke and his band of warlords were still in denial and arrogantly believed the Sabah tsunami would not happen in the Peninsula.
DAP has itself to blame if it still doesn’t get the clue that UMNO cannot play second fiddle, as its sole existence is to dominate and control the government, allowing them to plunder and steal. The only reason why BN had agreed to partner with PH in November 2022 is that UMNO hated Bersatu-PAS more than it despised DAP. Besides, UMNO cannot survive as the opposition.
Make no mistake – UMNO agreed to work with Anwar-led Pakatan Harapan not because it wanted to make new friends. It just wanted power and to leverage on DAP to enjoy free Chinese votes. It needed a temporary shelter to lick its wound, rejuvenate and rebuild. Mistook UMNO for BFF, DAP under Loke’s leadership foolishly swallowed the hook, line and sinker.
Having tasted power, perks and positions, DAP has become complacent and arrogant in just three years. It has forgotten its roots and lost touch with its original purpose, history and founding principles. Its leaders are blinded by power and would rather “kowtow” and beg UMNO than go back to being the opposition. For the sake of a second term, they are willing to lose dignity and principle.
Now that UMNO has grown from strength to strength, at least that’s what the party thinks, it has no more use for DAP, PKR or Amanah. DAP Youth can cry, moan, and bitch till foaming at the mouth. But UMNO must go solo to test the water to see if it could win a two-thirds majority again in Johor – a vital indicator to rally UMNO-Malays to return to power in the driver’s seat at the federal level.
Instead of babbling, yapping, and crying like a baby losing a candy, DAP should show not only courage to face UMNO heads on, but also decisively leave the toxic PKR under the treachery, racism, corruption, hypocrisy, fake, and untrustworthy Anwar leadership. Doing none of these would see the Democratic Action Party lose more seats than it could imagine. Time is running out. – Finance Twitter