Malaysia’s DAP in the Post-Lim Era: Fighting Demographic Realities

The Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party (DAP), which represents ethnic Chinese in the Malaysian unity government, has made some inroads in becoming a multi-racial party. But demographical realities and the political compact in the Malaysian unity government continues to present a dilemma for the party.

DAP held its annual congress and Central Executive Committee (CEC) elections on 16 March, completing the party’s transition to the third-generation (3G) leadership led by Minister of Transport Anthony Loke, who was re-elected Secretary-General. Loke succeeded Lim Guan Eng as the Secretary-General, underlining the party’s transition to the post-Lim era which had started at the 2022 congress. Then, Mr Lim Kit Siang, Mr Lim’s father and the party’s longest-serving Secretary-General from 1970 to 1999, withdrew from the CEC contest and announced his retirement from politics.

The 30 members of DAP’s 2025-28 CEC were elected by the 4,203 delegates. Lim Guan Eng, in 26^th place, barely made it; his sister, Lim Hui Ying, failed to get a place on the committee. The CEC members then chose among them office bearers, including the number one position, the Secretary-General.

The transition is taking place at a time when the Chinese-based component party of the ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition is facing demographic and political challenges in defending Chinese representation in the government and expanding its influence beyond the community.

Although a multi-racial party as framed by its constitution, DAP has almost exclusively contested in Chinese-majority or ethnically-mixed constituencies, and has become the dominant party in the Chinese community. DAP took over the role of Chinese representative in the government from Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) after Pakatan Harapan (PH) won the 2018 general elections. Following BN’s defeat, Chinese representation in the government reached an unprecedented level when the junior Lim was appointed Finance Minister, the first ethnic Chinese to hold the position since 1974. At the Ministry of Defence, another senior DAP leader, Liew Chin Tong, was made Deputy Minister, the first ethnic Chinese to occupy the office.  

But the decline in the country’s Chinese population is threatening the community’s representation in the government and consequently, DAP’s relevance in the political landscape. According to the 2020 census, Malaysian Chinese constituted 23.2 per cent of the population, down from 24.5 per cent in 2010. The Department of Statistics has projected the decline to continue; ethnic Chinese will make up only 20 per cent of the population by 2040. Chinese population decline was cited as one of the reasons to justify the defection of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) lawmakers that led to the collapse of the PH administration in 2020 and the formation of a new Malay-Muslim dominated Perikatan Nasional (PN) government. Without DAP in the new government, Chinese representation was significantly reduced to only one minister from the MCA from 2020 to 2022.

The return of credible Chinese representation through DAP in the government since the 2022 General Election did not end the persistent challenge from within and outside the unity government. Less than a year after the formation of the unity government, UMNO’s Ismail Sabri Yaakob spoke favourably of the all Malay-Muslim coalition Muafakat Nasional and blamed the partnership with the DAP for his party’s poor performance in Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah state polls.

… the decline in the country’s Chinese population is threatening the community’s representation in the government and consequently, DAP’s relevance in the political landscape.

PAS, the Islamic party numerically dominating the PN opposition coalition, has consistently promoted the revival of an all Malay-Muslim political coalition. In a Facebook post days before the DAP congress, PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang encouraged UMNO to return to the “right path”, suggesting that the latter had been working with a party that undermines Islam and the Malay community. In its latest move to further diminish Chinese participation in the government, PAS even suggested that the Prime Minister position be reserved for Muslims, to be consistent with the constitutional status of Islam as the religion of the federation.

To shed the “Chinese party” label, DAP has been consistent in attempting to fulfil its commitment as a multi-racial party. At the 2013 General Elections, it nominated a Malay-Muslim Zairil Khir Johari for the Bukit Bendera parliamentary seat, a safe Chinese-majority constituency in Penang. At the 2022 General eEections, DAP allocated Bangi and Bentong, two of its safe, ethnically mixed parliamentary constituencies, to its upcoming Malay-Muslim leaders Syahredzan Johan and Young Syefura Othman. Both MPs were also elected into the latest CEC and Minister of Digital Gobind Singh Deo was named national chairman. He is the second non-Chinese to hold the position after his late father Karpal Singh, who served in the position from 2004 to 2014.

DAP’s experiment in 2018 to contest in Malay-majority constituencies led to success in two state legislative seats: Dusun Tua in Selangor and Pengkalan Batu in Melaka. The expansion beyond Chinese majority or mixed wards continued at the 2022 general elections when DAP nominated Malay-Muslim candidates in Malay-Muslim majority constituencies of Mersing and Pontian in Johor, but lost to PN and BN respectively.

It is unlikely that DAP can continue to expand into Malay-Muslim majority constituencies with the formation of the unity government with BN. At the 2023 Selangor state elections, DAP was forced to give way to BN’s UMNO in the Dusun Tua constituency to ensure a straight fight with PN. It was the clearest indicator that under the PH-BN partnership, DAP’s role will be confined to representing Chinese majority or mixed constituencies.

In the short term, DAP can only rely on UMNO and other allies to defend its participation and Chinese representation in the unity government. In the long term, demographic realities will catch up and DAP will have to expand its influence beyond the Chinese-majority constituencies, but under the current PH-BN power-sharing arrangement, DAP’s role is restricted.

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