Malaysian politics: DAP’s new leader Anthony Loke hopeful voters will reject Najib, ethnic ‘zero-sum game’
- Anthony Loke’s DAP is supported by the country’s ethnic Chinese minority, but to broaden its political appeal it must connect with Malay voters
- Malays make up 70 per cent of Malaysia’s population, and the role of the prime minister must be filled by a Malay
The Democratic Action Party, a constituent of the Pakatan Harapan alliance, has long telegraphed that 44-year-old Anthony Loke would be its likely next leader, and the veteran politician assumed the position after internal elections over the weekend.
Loke, who honed his multilingual oratory flair while working at his father’s restaurant as a teen, succeeds long-time party chief Lim Guan Eng.
The DAP is among a handful of Malaysian political parties that espouses multiracialism, and is heavily backed by the country’s ethnic Chinese minority. The party governs the state of Penang under the auspices of Pakatan Harapan, and is widely seen as one of the fiercest adversaries of Najib’s United Malays National Organisation (Umno).
It has 42 seats in the 222-seat national parliament, making it the single largest party in the legislature.