Ramasamy, who now chairs Urimai, questioned the purpose of holding the congress, saying its outcome would not affect DAP’s position in the federal and state governments.
“I suppose the congress is meant to reassure the party’s grassroots that the leadership is taking tangible steps to address outstanding issues.
“Unfortunately, it may not have any impact on the government, even if the congress results in the resignation of DAP’s elected representatives from their government positions.
“The government knows very well that DAP will remain on its side, regardless of the congress’s outcome. There will be no pressure on its part to change or attempt to introduce reforms.
“My question is simple and straightforward: why then hold the congress?” he asked in a statement.
In another statement, former MCA vice-president Ti Lian Ker compared DAP’s planned congress to MCA president Wee Ka Siong’s previous announcement that the party’s annual general meeting would decide MCA’s future in the unity government.
“In both cases, the cycle was familiar: intense media hype, emotional grassroots mobilisation and solemn invocations of party democracy — followed by a quiet decision to stay put.
“It is easy to threaten to leave the government, but the political reality is brutally hard to execute,” he said.
When the Democratic Action Party (DAP) announces a special congress to decide whether to remain in the Madani government, it sounds momentous. Yet this script is not new. The Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) ran the same play when its president, Wee Ka Siong, declared that the party AGM would decide MCA’s future in Barisan Nasional and the unity government.
Yesterday, DAP secretary-general Loke Siew Fook said delegates at the congress would vote on whether party leaders should resign as ministers, deputy ministers, state and local executive councillors and GLC appointees.
Loke said the congress would serve as an internal “referendum” following the party’s drubbing in the Sabah polls.
He stressed that, regardless of the outcome, the party’s MPs would continue backing the government until the next general election and would not join any attempts to form a “backdoor government”.