Democratic Action Party

The Democratic Action Party (abbrev: DAP; Malay: Parti Tindakan Demokratik) is a secular, social democratic political party in Malaysia. As one of four component parties of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, it formed the federal government after defeating Barisan Nasional (BN) in the 2018 Malaysian general election, ending the party's 53 year-long stay in the opposition. However, before the coalition finished its first term, defections from partnering parties caused it to lose power after 22 months, culminating in the 2020 Malaysian political crisis. At the 2022 Malaysian general election, the PH coalition which the DAP was part of was returned to power again, albeit without a majority, leading it to form a unity government with political rivals. It is one of the four component parties of the Pakatan Harapan ruling coalition in Malaysia.
The DAP was founded in 1965 by Malaya–based members of the Singaporean People's Action Party (PAP), Chen Man Hin and Devan Nair, shortly after Singapore's expulsion from Malaysia. Singapore's expulsion was in part due to intense ideological differences between the federal government, led by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which favoured the idea of Ketuanan Melayu and Malay nationalism for the country. In contrast, the PAP favoured a more egalitarian and civic nationalist Malaysian Malaysia, which the DAP would continue to espouse. Following the expulsion, the PAP was elected as the ruling government of a newly sovereign Singapore and would continue to operate on a platform of civic nationalism.
The DAP draws much of its support from progressive voters with a stable electorate from voters of cities, coastal regions, the middle class, and the working class. The party's strongholds are primarily in the urban and semi-urban areas of Penang, Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Johor, Malacca and the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur. In the 2018 Malaysian general election, the party contested in 47 federal and 104 state constituencies under the banner of its ally the People's Justice Party, winning 42 and 102 seats respectively, except in Sarawak, where the party's state branch chose to contest under its own banner.
The party is the direct successor of the Malaysian branch of the Singapore–based People's Action Party (PAP), which was then known as the People's Action Party of Malaya. Singapore's expulsion from Malaysia led to its deregistration in 1965 by the Registrar of Societies (RoS). The deregistered party's leadership consisted of Devan Nair (secretary-general), Chen Man Hin (chairman), D. P. Xavier (assistant secretary-general), Goh Hock Guan (vice-chairman), Seeveratnam Sinnathamby (treasurer), who was the younger brother of Singapore minister S. Rajaratnam, with Zain Azahari bin Zainal Abidin, Chin Chan Sung, Michael Khong Chye Huat, Tan Chong Bee and Too Chee Cheong as committee members.
The Democratic Action Party was officially formed on 11 October 1965 by the remnants of the People's Action Party of Malaya. However, the registration of the party was delayed to 18 March 1966 while the ruling Alliance Party laid out new conditions for the registration of political parties in the Societies Act 1966. While awaiting the party's registration, party chairman Chen Man Hin won the state constituency of Rahang, Negeri Sembilan as an independent in December 1965.
In August 1966, the official party organ, The Rocket, was first published.
The party adopted the Setapak Declaration at the first DAP National Congress held on 29 July 1967, declaring itself "irrevocably committed to the ideal of a free, democratic and socialist Malaysia, based on the principles of racial and religious equality, social and economic justice, and founded on the institution of parliamentary democracy", and later joined the Socialist International, participating in the organisation's International Council in Zurich, Switzerland.
In 1967, the party was involved in discussions to form a united front of opposition parties against the Alliance coalition ahead of the 1969 general election without success.
In March 1968, the party negotiated an agreement with the People's Progressive Party(PPP) to avoid contesting against each other in the state of Perak for the upcoming general election. The DAP sought to achieve a similar agreement with the United Democratic Party (UDP), whose stronghold was Penang, but failed to come to an understanding with its leader Lim Chong Eu, who sarcastically thanked DAP secretary-general Goh Hock Guan for "his very smug condescension." The same month, the DAP was approached by the newly formed Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia, then led by Syed Hussein Alatas, which suggested the DAP merge into the new party.
Devan Nair, who was amongst those who founded the DAP, returned to Singapore in 1969 after being withdrawn as a candidate for the 1969 general election, later becoming its president in 1981. Lee Kuan Yew, then Prime Minister of Singapore under the PAP, explained in 1981 that "the Cabinet decided that Singapore-Malaysia relations would always be bedevilled if Devan Nair remained a DAP leader. I persuaded him to come back".
The DAP contested a general election for the first time in 1969 together with both the People's Progressive Party and Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia in an electoral pact. In line with their commitment to equality, the DAP originally campaigned against Bumiputera privileges, such as those afforded to them by Article 153 of the Constitution. They also continued Lee Kuan Yew's campaign for a "Malaysian Malaysia", the idea of which was originally conveyed by Lee in Parliament: "Malaysia – to whom does it belong? To Malaysians. But who are Malaysians? I hope I am, Mr Speaker, Sir. But sometimes, sitting in this chamber, I doubt whether I am allowed to be a Malaysian".
The DAP went on to win 13 Parliamentary seats and 31 State Assembly seats, with 11.9% of all valid votes that were cast in the election; the Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (Gerakan) which campaigned on a similar platform also made major gains. The 1969 election marked the biggest gains ever made by an opposition party in Malaysia before 2008, and came close to seeing the ruling Alliance toppled from power. However, the racial riots sparked by provocative political rallies in the immediate aftermath of the election led to what is now known as the 13 May Incident, resulting in the suspension of parliament and the formation of the National Operations Council, which governed the country until 1971 in place of the elected government.
When parliament reconvened, it passed pieces of legislation such as the Sedition Act that criminalized the discussion of repealing certain portions of the Constitution. Most of these concerned Bumiputra privileges, such as Article 153. The DAP and the People's Progressive Party were the only parties that voted against the Act, which passed by a vote of 125 to 17. After the 1969 election, the DAP would never come close to repeating its past successes for the next 38 years. Although the DAP remained a major opposition party, the ruling coalition had clung solidly to its two-thirds parliamentary majority. The DAP, however, continued campaigning on its platform of abolishing the Bumiputra privileges, securing equal rights for all Malaysians, and establishing a democratic socialist state in Malaysia.
The party boycotted the National Consultative Council, a body formed in the aftermath of the 1969 racial riots to "establish positive and practical guidelines for inter-racial co-operation and social integration", in protest of the government's continued detention of its secretary-general, Lim Kit Siang, under the Internal Security Act.
In 1978, the party experienced a split when founding member and Penang state chairman Yeap Ghim Guan left and formed the Socialist Democratic Party after attempts by the national leadership to take over the party's state leadership. Yeap was joined by the entire state committee and member of parliament for Petaling Oh Keng Seng. They were later joined by party stalwart Fan Yew Teng, who had served as acting secretary-general while Lim was detained under the Internal Security Act and was the member of parliament for Menglembu. Those who had left the party all labelled Lim's leadership as "dictatorial".
The party suffered more defections in the lead-up to the 1978 Malaysian general election, when one of its most prominent Malay members, Daing Ibrahim Othman, left the party in protest of the leadership's decision to move him to another constituency, which was followed by a number of resignations in Negeri Sembilan for similar reasons.
In 1995, the party ran what has become widely known as the "Robocop" campaign to wrest Penang from the Barisan Nasional. Despite the hype, the campaign was a failure as the party only won one state and three parliamentary seats. The strategy backfired when Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, BN leaders and the media criticised Lim Kit Siang as a "robot" and "soulless" person.
Following the ousting of Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in September 1998, DAP co-founded the Barisan Alternatif coalition along with Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party and the newly formed People's Justice Party. However, the coalition did not work out very well for the DAP, with two of its top leaders, Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh losing their Parliamentary seats in the 1999 election; the DAP managed to win only 5% (10 out of 193) of the seats in Parliament. PAS became the leading opposition party in Parliament. It left the coalition in 2001 due to a disagreement with PAS over the issue of an Islamic state.
In the 2004 general election, the DAP managed to capture 12 seats in Parliament, while PAS and Keadilan suffered major setbacks, with PAS losing 20 of the 27 seats it had held after the 1999 elections, and Keadilan lost all seats except one returned after a recount. The eventual outcome saw Lim Kit Siang, who had been elected in his constituency of Ipoh Timur with a majority of 10,000 votes, formally elected as the leader of the opposition in Parliament, a post he had lost to the president of PAS in 1999.
In the 2006 Sarawak state election, the Democratic Action Party won 6 of the 12 seats it contested and narrowly lost three other seats with small majorities. Up til then it was the party's best showing ever in the history of Sarawak's state elections since 1979.
Pakatan Rakyat was formed in 2008 by DAP, PKR and PAS. In the 2008 general election, the DAP won 13% (28 out of 222) of the seats in the Dewan Rakyat, with PAS and PKR making substantial gains as well with 23 seats and 31 seats respectively. In total, the taking of 82 seats (37%) by the opposition to Barisan Nasional's 140 seats (63%), makes it the best performance in Malaysian history by the opposition, and denied Barisan Nasional the two-thirds majority required to make constitutional changes in the Dewan Rakyat. DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang expressed surprise at the election results but declared it to be the true power of the voice of the Malaysian people for the leaders of the country to hear them. In addition, DAP, having secured all its contested seats in the state of Penang, formed the Penang state government with its alliance partners PKR and PAS, the Chief Minister being DAP's Lim Guan Eng, son of Lim Kit Siang.
In the 2011 Sarawak state election, DAP furthered its gains from the previous election, winning 12 out of the 70 state assembly seats, with PR winning a total of 15 state seats and 41% of the popular vote. The PR's success was further enhanced in the 2013 general election when DAP went on to win 17% (38 out of 222) of the seats in the Dewan Rakyat and the PR coalition won the popular vote, giving the BN government its worst election showing since independence. In 2015, the PR alliance broke up after a PAS Muktamar (General Assembly) motion unanimously approved the breaking of ties with DAP due to disagreements over PAS's decision to propose a private member's bill to implement "hudud" (Islamic penal code). Following PAS's decision to cut ties with DAP, DAP announced that PR had "ceased to exist".
At the DAP election in December 2012, Vincent Wu, who was initially declared to have secured the sixth spot with 1,202 votes, dropped to 26th place because he had actually secured only 669. Zairil Khir Johari was elected to the central executive committee (CEC) with 803 votes to secure the 20th spot. The glitch, reportedly because of a vote tabulation error due to the copy-and-paste method in Microsoft Excel, had raised suspicion. The DAP admitted to the counting error after discovering the mistake. The DAP election fiasco had caused unease among party members and led to protests to the Registrar of Societies (RoS). Two dissatisfied life members of the DAP then lodged reports with the RoS on the party elections following the revelations. Following the report the RoS had informed DAP of the dispute by its members and in turn as provided for under Section 3A of the Societies Act 1966 did recognise the office-bearers of the committee formed in the party elections on 15 December 2012, the point of contention.
DAP chairperson Karpal Singh said DAP will contest under the PAS logo for the Peninsula and PKR logo in Sabah and Sarawak in the 13th general election, following the Registrar of Societies' (RoS) failure to respond on the withdrawal letter of RoS informing that it does not recognise the party's top leadership line-up. DAP had appealed to the RoS to withdraw its letter to suspend the party's existing central executive committee (CEC) but the department was silent on the matter.
On 19 April 2013, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng informed all its 51 parliament and 103 state candidates to use the rocket symbol first during nomination tomorrow, and show the Election Commission the letter of authorisation signed by secretary-general Lim Guan Eng. If the rocket symbol is rejected, then use the letter of authorisation signed by PAS secretary-general Mustafa Ali for Peninsula Malaysia and PKR letter of authorisation for Sabah and Sarawak. This came after the DAP decided to use PAS and PKR symbols for the coming general election on 5 May. He said the DAP headquarters in Kuala Lumpur received a letter by hand from the RoS at 10 p.m. on 19 April, stating that it had no objections to the DAP using the logo, and that the Election Commission (EC) had informed all returning officers to accept nominations from the DAP.
On 29 September 2013, DAP held a special congress to vote for a new Central Executive Committee.
On 22 September 2015, the Pakatan Harapan coalition was formed by DAP, PKR and the National Trust Party to succeed Pakatan Rakyat. In the 2016 Sarawak state election, the party lost its gains from the previous election, retaining only 7 of the 12 seats it had won in 2011, while Pakatan Harapan as whole won 10 state seats and 30.16% of the popular vote.
On 12 February 2017, Kota Melaka MP, Sim Tong Him, along with three other DAP state assemblymen from Melaka, Goh (Duyong), Lim Jack Wong (Bachang), and Chin Choong Seong (Kesidang), announced their resignation from the party, citing a lack of trust in the party's leadership.
The party participated in the 2018 general election as a part of Pakatan Harapan, now a four-member coalition with the addition of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (BERSATU). During the election, the coalition won 113 seats and was able to form the federal government after securing an alliance with the Sabah Heritage Party. The DAP won 42 seats of the 47 seats it contested, making it the second-largest party from Pakatan Harapan in the parliament's lower house behind PKR, which had won 47 seats. The party was given six ministerial portfolios and secured seven deputy minister positions in the Seventh Mahathir cabinet, with then-secretary-general of the party Lim Guan Eng being appointed Minister of Finance, becoming the first person of Malaysian Chinese descent to hold the position in 44 years since Tan Siew Sin from the Malaysian Chinese Association, who served in that capacity from 1959 until 1974. Other ministerial appointments included Loke Siew Fook as Minister of Transport, who eventually replaced Lim Kit Siang as DAP parliamentary leader on 11 July 2018, Kulasegaran Murugeson as Minister of Human Resources, Yeo Bee Yin as Minister of Energy, Teresa Kok as Minister of Primary Industries, and Gobind Singh Deo as Minister of Communications and Multimedia.
On 24 February 2020, the DAP became the largest party in the Dewan Rakyat for the first time after 11 of the People's Justice Party's 50 MPs resigned during the political crisis. UMNO had also lost 16 of its 54 MPs over several months, mostly through defections to Bersatu. Though the political crisis resulted in the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan government, it retained its 42 MPs. However, over the course of the crisis, a number of state assemblymen defected to opposing coalitions. On 9 March 2020, Paul Yong and A Sivasubramaniam left the party to join the new Perikatan Nasional state government in Perak. The next day on 10 March, DAP expelled Norhizam Hassan Baktee, assemblyman for Pengkalan Batu, over his support for the new Perikatan Nasional government in Melaka. The party also expelled Sabah assemblyman Ronnie Loh for his support of Perikatan's attempt to replace Sabah state government led by Shafie Apdal and his Warisan Plus coalition.
Separately, the party's Sarawak vice-chairman and Padungan assemblyman Wong King Wei resigned on 27 July 2020, claiming the party had deviated from its objectives and citing his disillusionment with party leadership. He continued to hold his seat as an independent until his term ended in 2021.
DAP was founded by Chen Man Hin and Devan Nair, who were ethnic Chinese and Indian respectively. The majority of DAP's party membership is of ethnic Chinese and Indian heritage, with most elected positions within the party being held by Chinese members. While the party has fielded Malay candidates in every general election since 1969, only five had ever been elected by 2008. Of the five, two had been elected in 1969 as state legislative assemblymen, while the party's first Malay member of parliament was only elected in 1990. The DAP also only gained its first native Sabahan (Kadazandusun) legislator in 2013, Edwin Jack Bosi, who sat in Sabah State Legislative Assembly. The lack of Malay members within the party has led to DAP being viewed as a "racist" or "anti-Malay" party by political opponents in that it is exclusively concerned with the issues of the Chinese or Indian communities.
Despite constant rebuttals by party leaders, DAP has been depicted by their political opponents, especially from UMNO, as a party that favours the Malaysian Chinese minority above others. This allegation of racial chauvinism culminated in a two-piece television program broadcast on government-controlled TV channel Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) entitled "Bahaya Cauvinisme", which translates to "Dangers of Chauvinism". The program forced then party leader Lim Kit Siang to issue a formal media statement to counter the allegations.
On 15 November 2011, Ismail Sabri Yaakob, the Malaysian Minister for Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism, accused DAP's publicity chief, Tony Pua of racism for making repeated attacks against the Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia, a government initiative to supply cheap retail products to Malaysian consumers. Tony Pua was criticised for singling out Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia, whose suppliers to the store generally come from the Malaysian Bumiputra community, and for not investigating the quality of products supplied by Malaysian-Chinese suppliers or making similar accusations against independent Malaysian-Chinese stores.
Allegations of racism have forced DAP party leader Lim Guan Eng to issue a formal denial in the Penang High Court.
The symbol or logo of the DAP (see above) is the rocket, which it has used since the 1969 general election. Its components are symbolised as follows:
In 2008, DAP initially introduced "Rocket Kid", a rocket as the party's official mascot during the 12th Malaysian general election. This was then changed to Ubah bird, a hornbill which was designed by Ooi Leng Hang and was launched during the Sarawak state election in 2011 and also used as part of their political campaigning during the 13th Malaysian general election in 2013. DAP had adopted this bird as a symbol for change both for its unique characteristics, hardiness and representation of the unity of both East Malaysia and West Malaysia into a Malaysian nation. Its merchandise such as plush toys, buttons and car stickers were very well received by the public. The idea of the mascot came from Sarawak DAP Secretary and future state party chairman, Chong Chieng Jen, who felt a mascot would boost the spirit of the people. The name "Ubah", which means "change" in Malay, is in line with the party's aspirations in changing the ruling party of the Malaysian federal government. In addition to its original Sarawak Iban costume, "Ubah" now comes in a Malay costume for Hari Raya, Indian costume for Deepavali, Chinese costume for Chinese New Year, Santa Claus costume for Christmas, and a Superman costume that depicts the power of the people. On 13 July 2013, a gigantic float known as the "Ubah Inflatable Bird (Water Ubah)" was officially launched at IJM Promenade, Jelutong, Penang by DAP Secretary General Lim Guan Eng.
DAP's official party anthem is Berjuang Untuk Rakyat Malaysia (Fighting for the Malaysian People).
Other than the official party anthem, DAP has also unveiled several theme songs and music videos mostly with an Ubah theme such as "Ubah" with over 1,000,000 views, 明天 with over 500,000 views and "Ubah Rocket Style" with over 300,000 views, which is a parody of the viral YouTube hit "Gangnam Style".
The Central Executive Committee (CEC) serves as the party's executive body and its 30 members are elected by party delegates during a national congress held every three years. The CEC, in turn, elects the party's national leadership from among its own members, including the Secretary-General, in whom executive power is vested. The current Secretary-General is Minister of Transport Anthony Loke. The latest leadership structure can be found below.
Note: The Acting Secretary-General is appointed when the Secretary-General is incapable of carrying out their duties or if the position is vacated before an election can be held.. Lim Kit Siang was elected as Secretary-General in October 1969 while detained under the ISA and Fan Yew Teng was Acting Secretary-General. Chong Eng took over for Kerk Kim Hock while the latter sought treatment for rectal cancer. M. Kulasegaran was Acting Secretary-General after Kerk Kim Hock lost his seat in parliament and resigned before Lim Guan Eng was elected Secretary-General.
Note: Chairman of the Central Policy and Strategic Planning Commission is a newly created position on 2004 when Lim Kit Siang refused to be re-elected as Chairman of DAP.
DAP has 40 members in the House of Representatives.