Crouching Tiger of Jelutong

When there is a piece of barren soil left abandoned, it attracts nobody but once it is being cultivated, then many will be competing to have a share in it. That’s what a Chinese saying “瘦田无人耕，耕开有人争” literally means. And it seems that it was the root cause of the “Warlord vs. Godfather” drama currently putting up on stage by some frictions of DAP. Warlord refers to Dr Ramasamy, the deputy Chief Minister of Penang while the Godfather is none other than the crouching tiger of Jelutong, Karpal Singh. 

Karpal is no stranger to Malaysians, whether you like politics or hate it, Karpal has earned his reputation both as a lawyer and politician. To his millions’ of admirer, Karpal is the true voice of the people and a brave enough politician to even go after the “big shots” such as the prime minister, the sultans or even the yang Pertuan Agong. He is a highly controversial politician, DAP staunch leader and along with Lim Kit Siang, were frequently labeled as racists by some people, government people especially. But this time around, Karpal is at loggerhead with a person from his own camp, Dr Ramasamy, which is the deputy Chief Minister of Penang but a political novice as compared to Karpal who has been a member of DAP since 1970, and in and out of Parliament for many times since he joined politics.

The tussle between Karpal and Ramasamy was mainly due to the fight on candidacy for the upcoming general election. Since causing a political tsunami in 2008 general election which for the first time in the history denying the BN two third majority, some of the politicians from the Pakatan Rakyat are started to see the “good side” of politics; the “dollar sign” of politics as the portfolios that come along after forming a state government are something that opposition parties such as DAP could never have dreamt for. 2008 political tsunami was a game changer for DAP as together with PAS and Keadilan, they captured Pulau Pinang, Selangor, Kelantan and then the Perak which was later fallen into BN again due to some crossovers and backstabbing. 

The politicians from the opposition camp are even thinking of taking over Putrajaya for the upcoming general election and although such thing was unthinkable in the past but time has changed and all unthinkable is now possible with the change in the mindset of the voters. But too bad that infighting in DAP is occurring at a time when unification is more crucial than any other moments in the past as if we can’t ride on the present momentum to completely overhaul the present government system, then that’s it, everything back to square one.