I REALLY have no wish to appear ungallant, but I am duty bound to say that Lim Kit Siang’s prized trophy candidate who was supposed to take Teluk Intan by storm did not, in the event, live up to her billings.
The DAP supreme adviser himself was apparently ill-advised: he committed a cardinal sin in underestimating the intelligence of a large section of the voting public who gave the supremo short shrift and a bruised ego to boot.
They gave his beautiful Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud a wide berth into the bargain. In short, “the long in the tooth” and the still “wet behind the ears” partnership was given a lesson in humility they are unlikely to forget for a long time to come.
Hudud has been blamed for the unexpected outcome. It was a typical DAP red herring to divert attention from the real causes of the defeat in their own backyard.
In a nutshell, what spoiled the party for the purportedly invincible DAP was their brand of politics — of hate and blame.
Most decent Malaysians were sick to their back teeth by DAP’s campaign style, relying as it did on reckless allegations without any evidence to back their claims. The defeat at Teluk Intan was in a very real sense self-inflicted.
The choice of Dyana Sofya caused much unhappiness and soul searching among the DAP stalwarts. They were believed to have sabotaged Kit Siang’s efforts, which, observers said led to the unusually high number of spoilt votes.
Debutante Dyana Sofya made her election appearance under a cloud of controversy.
The people saw through the DAP ploy for what it was — a not particularly clever strategy to pull wool over the eyes of Malay voters in hopes of convincing them the party they regarded as the leading practitioner of Chinese chauvinism was, in truth, pro-Malay.
Crudely put, the attempt completely backfired. A Malay acquaintance in Teluk Intan, when speaking to me some days before polling day, delivered the ultimate Dyana-Kit Siang putdown, “We may be stupid, but not that stupid”.
They decided, in their wisdom, that a pretty face was no substitute for solid experience of public service that Datuk Mah Siew Keong would be bringing to the job. He was not some Johnny-come-lately to the constituency.
He was born and bred there and not a political adventurer in the mould of the Lims who are accomplished stunt election parachutists.
His face might not evoke complex emotional responses or make women go weak in the knees: it is clear, though, for all to see that his is an open face with decency and honesty written all over it. His answers were straight from the shoulder and straight as an arrow because his life — past and present — has always been an open book.
He did not hum and haw, and journalists who covered him on the hustings were united in their praise of his integrity. He and his family have a very considerable personal stake in the future of his town.
Dyana Sofya was regarded as an interloper at best and an opportunist at worst. She was a complete stranger to Teluk Intan and it was really the height of arrogance for her handler to believe a pretty face of itself was sufficient recompense for her inexperience to represent the people of Teluk Intan.
The supremely confident pretty Dyana Sofya began to wither as the tightly controlled and orchestrated campaign started to reveal serious cracks and chinks in her armour.
Her responses were becoming more and more incoherent and less and less credible. There were many occasions when listeners were wondering who was contesting the election because her minder was taking all the questions.
Dyana Sofya was not chosen for her beauty, brains and bravery as Kit Siang would have us believe. She happened to come in handy to be used as a pawn in the factional struggles that had the party teetering on the brink of a “civil war” that could tear DAP apart.
Meritocracy, the DAP war cry, was consigned to the rocket’s back burner when picking Dyana Sofya over better qualified and experienced candidates. If she has not yet seen the writing on the wall, she will soon see that party loyalty counts for nothing, but personal loyalty to the Lims opens the gate to the inner sanctum of power and privilege, but I digress.
Mah’s upset victory, albeit by a whisker against very considerable odds, made his return to active politics all the sweeter.
I do not know the good man from Adam but, observing his demeanour and reading some of his comments as reported in the papers, I instinctively knew that the folks in Teluk Intan would have a principled man and a steady pair of hands to serve them in the coming months and years.
I was at a dinner to celebrate Tan Sri Robert Phang’s 75th birthday when news came through that the comely Dyana Sofya had failed to impress enough people to put her in the Dewan Rakyat where she promised to cut Pas down to size over hudud.
A new pretty face would be a welcome addition to the Dewan I dare say, but for now they have to contend with life without Dyana Sofya.
In summary, therefore, the battle for Teluk Intan was lost because Kit Siang ignored an age-old reminder that beauty is skin deep.
He lost Teluk Intan to a better candidate.
