As the Democratic Action Party (DAP) faces critical decisions ahead of Malaysia's elections, questions arise about its evolving role and identity in a changing political landscape.
Singapore, Singapore Jul 21, 2026 ALN: As a battered Democratic Action Party (DAP) heads into another high-stakes state election in August, the challenges before it are not simply one of the number of seats it hopes to secure in Negeri Sembilan.
The questions go deeper: What does it hope to achieve as a political party? What compromises will it accept to achieve its ends? What does it even stand for in a political landscape that is still fundamentally race-based but whose contours are rapidly shifting with each electoral test?
The message from the July 11 Johor state election for DAP is stark. The Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition secured a thumping 48 of 56 seats. Pakatan Harapan (PH) managed only eight, with DAP, the coalition’s largest component, taking six. DAP lost four incumbencies to BN members – three to the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) and one to the Malaysian Indian Congress. The losses follow the wipe-out DAP suffered in Sabah’s November 2025 election, where it lost every seat it contested.
These results are not isolated local setbacks. They reflect a deeper shift in how Chinese voters now view DAP: no longer the fearless opposition firebrand, but an increasingly compromised partner in Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s unity government.
The party is undergoing a painful transition from opposition critic to government stakeholder, and its traditional base is beginning to see uncomfortable parallels between it and the old MCA, the once-dominant Chinese party that grew quiet and compliant during decades of BN rule.
To its critics, DAP is now a shadow of its former self – the vocal champion of the concept of a “Malaysian Malaysia” that stands in contrast to MCA’s acceptance of a political hierarchy determined by race in exchange for a minority seat at the table, a limited portion of political power.
How well DAP faces up to the tensions between power and principle, public perceptions and political pragmatism will get an airing at its annual congress in mid-August. What it decides to do next will be one of the factors setting the stage for the next general election, which is due in early 2028 but may come sooner.
What steps DAP will take next will, of course, be guided by the post-mortem of its most recent defeat and the lessons it draws from it.
Local explanations exist. MCA fielded stronger, more experienced candidates in several seats and ran effective ground campaigns focused on development and affordability. The collapse of Malay support for Perikatan Nasional (PN) in Johor largely flowed to UMNO-led BN rather than Anwar’s PH. DAP itself claims that its absolute vote numbers rose in the seats it defended, arguing that the losses stemmed from superior BN consolidation, not base erosion.
Yet these local factors mask a broader problem. Chinese voter enthusiasm for DAP has cooled. Turnout risks and quiet abstention were already flagged before polling day. Many voters are no longer prepared to give DAP automatic support. They are judging the party on delivery, not rhetoric. The same pattern appeared in Sabah, where urban Chinese voters deserted PH en masse.
While Chinese voters still mostly backed PH in Johor, their vote share fell to about 75 per cent from 85 per cent in the 2022 General Election. The drop is not simply one of a shift to MCA-BN but attributable to pro-DAP voters staying at home as a protest against the party.
The Chinese voters had backed DAP/PH overwhelmingly in the 2022 election in the hope that under Anwar, real political reforms would take place. But disillusionment has set in since. Promised changes such as a term limit for the prime minister’s post and the separation of the attorney-general and public prosecutor roles have not been fulfilled, leading to laments about “reformati”, or the death of reforms.
Many people credit Johor Mentri Besar Onn Hafiz Ghazi as the main reason for UMNO’s landslide victory, but the truth is more nuanced. While Onn Hafiz’s personal popularity certainly helped, the bigger factor was that UMNO barely faced any real opposition. The PN’s Bersatu component was already imploding ahead of the election, and Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS), its supposed ally in PN, was openly telling its supporters to back UMNO. With no credible Malay/Muslim challenger in the ring, and bolstered by Onn Hafiz’s strong appeal and the Johor Palace’s blessing, UMNO was virtually unstoppable.
Negeri Sembilan is due to go to the polls on Aug 1. DAP is defending 11 seats and expects to do better than in Johor, not least because its leader, Anthony Loke, comes from the state, even though he admits to facing a stiff fight from MCA.
Another reason is the fear factor – the rising worry among the Chinese (and Indian) voters that another UMNO state election landslide may lead to an early general election and the downfall of the Anwar government. Although Anwar is not popular with them, the fear that PAS may win power in the 16th general election frightens the Chinese more than Anwar’s disappointing record on political reforms.
DAP remains the largest component in Anwar’s federal coalition, yet it operates within a framework where the Prime Minister’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat and the broader Malay political centre set the boundaries. This is DAP’s version of the old MCA dilemma: To stay relevant in a Malay-dominated ruling arrangement, the party must temper its agenda and mute its voice on issues sensitive to Malay-Muslim sentiments.
There is, for instance, DAP’s push for government recognition of the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) awarded by independent Chinese-medium schools. The UEC is a racially charged topic. Official recognition of the UEC for admission to Malaysian public universities and civil service was part of Anwar’s campaign pledge. But the reform has made limited headway in the face of opposition from Malay-based groups such as UMNO Youth on the grounds that recognition would undermine the status of the Malay language.
The inclusion by Anwar’s government of UMNO leading figures long criticised by DAP for corruption and promoting Malay supremacy has also not gone unnoticed. For DAP supporters – and they are not solely Chinese with a “Chinese First” agenda as portrayed by the likes of PAS and other Malay-based parties – they see a party that once promised transformative change now managing expectations downwards and explaining away reform delays as coalition necessities.
Bit by bit, the lack of progress feeds into the growing perception that DAP has compromised too much as its leaders in government got too comfortable in the corridors of power with all the perks that come with it – bodyguards, a large number of staff, access to government machinery, overseas travel and VIP treatment.
In other words, with the dampening of its reformist fire, DAP has become the target of similar attacks levelled at MCA in the years before it fell from power, along with the rest of Najib Razak’s BN coalition, in 2018.
DAP faces a critical decision on Aug 16 as to whether to remain in Anwar’s unity government when the party holds its national congress. Loke, its secretary-general and transport minister, has said openly that delegates should not push for the party to leave the ruling PH coalition as DAP cannot be in government if it is not part of PH. Walking away would weaken the reformist camp, it is argued, and hand the 16th general election to more conservative forces.
Yet staying without pushing harder for concrete delivery risks confirming the worst fears of its base: that DAP has become the new MCA, no longer trusted to fight for its community’s core interests and no longer willing to speak out. Many are openly calling DAP “Diam Action Party” (silent action party).
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