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 Formed
in October 1965, Democratic Action Party (DAP) Malaysia was
formally registered six months later on March 18, 1966 as a
social democratic party “irrevocably committed to the ideal of
a free, democratic and socialist Malaysia, based on the
principles of racial equality, social and economic justice, and
founded on the institution of parliamentary democracy”. (SETAPAK
DECLARATION, made in the first DAP National Congress in Setapak,
Kuala Lumpur on July 29, 1967).
In August 1966, the official
organ of the Party, the Rocket, made its inaugural
appearance.
In October 1967, DAP joined 55
other social democratic, socialist and labour parties all over
the world as a member of the Socialist
International (SI) at the SI International Conference in
Zurich, Switzerland.
DAP contested its first general
election in 1969 and won 13 Parliamentary and 31 State Assembly
seats, securing 11.9 per cent of the valid votes cast.
However, DAP experienced its
ups and downs in the eight general elections contested in the 30
years between 1969 to 1999, from winning 24 Parliamentary and 37
state assembly seats in the 1986 general election to securing
only 9 Parliamentary and 11 State Assembly seats in the 1995
general election.
Through thick and thin for over
three decades, DAP has been second to none in the battle for
democracy, justice, equality and a united multi-racial,
multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious Malaysia.
DAP leaders, members and
supporters did not flinch when many of them had to pay a heavy
price for their political beliefs, losing their personal
liberties when detained under the Internal Security Act,
prosecuted, convicted and jailed on politically trumped-up
charges or victimized in a large variety of ways.
DAP succeeded in the first
30 years of its struggle to save Malaysia from the
catastrophe of permanent national division and eventual
disintegration by breaking the hardening mould of
a nation-building policy based on assimilation rather than
integration.
The Barisan Nasional (BN)
government had publicly admitted in 1994 that the
assimilation nation-building policy which it had originally
attempted to implement, with its “one language, one
culture” approach, which refused to recognize the
multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural
reality of the country, was unsuitable for a plural society
like Malaysia. DAP’s consistent and unwavering
advocacy of the integration approach to nation-building and
uncompromising opposition to any assimilation policy eventually
prevailed.
In the 1999 general election,
DAP teamed up with Parti Islam SaMalaya (PAS), Parti Keadilan
Nasional (Keadilan) and Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) to form the
Barisan Alternative (BA) in an attempt to shatter the BN
political hegemony, attributed to its undisrupted two-thirds
parliamentary majority – the root cause of the
BN’s political arrogance, undemocratic rule and repression of
the fundamental rights of Malaysians. (BA
Common Manifesto)
Unfortunately, however,
subsequent events that transpired, especially the insistence of
PAS in forming an Islamic State – an idea deemed incompatible
with the pluralistic nature of a Malaysian nation cherished by
DAP – forced DAP to pull-out from the coalition two years
later.
DAP remains unswerving in its
commitment that Malaysia shall remain as a democratic, secular
and multi-religious nation. DAP’s co-operation with the other
three opposition parties was based on the BA common manifesto,
“Towards A Just Malaysia” in order to break the BN’s
political hegemony and smash the chains of repression fettering
the rights and freedom of Malaysians and undermining
justice, freedom, democracy and good governance. Once the common
objectives of the BA coalition had been tainted by one component
party's insistence that the secular nature of this country
should replaced with an Islamic one, it was no longer tenable
for DAP to continue in the BA.
Nonetheless, the biggest
challenge for Malaysia lies in the future and not in the past
– to realize a Malaysian Malaysia where all Malaysians,
regardless of race or religion, can enjoy justice, freedom,
democracy and good governance.
DAP shall persevere with its
political commitment to bring about a fair, just, democratic and
united Malaysia so that the country can rise up to the
challenges of the information technology and globalization era
and take its rightful place in the international arena.
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