IT was the “extreme voices” that led to the fall of the Pakatan Harapan in March, said DAP strategist Liew Chin Tong.

The former deputy defence minister told The Malaysian Insight PH failed to assert its narrative after winning federal power in the 2018 general election.

“We had to occupy the middle ground but were pulled apart by many factors,” he said.

Liew said many Malaysians were also susceptible to racial framing and the PH leaders struggled to cope.

It is now two months after the fall of the PH and with the new Perikatan Nasional government saddled with the responsibility of containing the Covid-19 pandemic, the former leaders have had time to reflect on what went wrong and how they are to make a comeback.

Liew also spoke about the blame attributed to DAP during the political crisis that led to PH losing power in just under two years.

TMI: What are the positives that can happen now after what the political crisis which saw PH collapse?

Liew: For the first time there was a set of people who governed outside the Barisan Nasional framework, at the centre. They learnt how to govern although there wasn’t enough time. But it was enough to gain traction, understand policies and meet people.

Although we are now out of government, you have an opposition that has experience governing at the centre. That’s an asset.

People also learnt that their democratic space can be taken away just like that. The democracy we had on May 9, 2018, which came after many years of struggle, can be taken away overnight. The old establishment can just come back without an election.

I hope that will strengthen the resolve of a whole generation who want to see Malaysia as a democratic and a clean government. Everybody needs to think through this. It’s not just about us holding office but it is about building a lasting democracy.

People who want this will have to ask themselves how they can win 140 seats in the next round.

It’s no longer just about winning but about how to create a democratic wave. Parties, civil society groups and young people will have to think this through.

TMI: How do you overcome racial politics?

Liew: We failed to assert Pakatan Harapan’s narrative after winning power. There is no point for PH to compete with MCA to be more Chinese, or with MIC to be more Indian or with Umno and PAS to be more Malay or Islamic. We have to occupy the middle but we were pulled apart by many factors.

We had to contend with free speech, fake news and there were many Malaysians who were still susceptible to racial framing. And our leaders were struggling to respond to all sides and eventually we were pulled apart from the middle.

For us to come back, we will have to educate ourselves that it’s only in the middle that we can beat the other side. We have to tell our supporters and our leaders, we are not going to compete on racial politics but build a centre that can win 140 seats.

TMI: Is DAP at the centre?

Liew: DAP was struggling. There was a time when PAS also played the role of a centrist party. Under Dr Fadzil Noor and Nik Aziz Nik Mat, there was an attempt to bring PAS to the middle but eventually Abdul Hadi Awang’s faction was too strong and then came Amanah.

DAP was not formed as a racial party but on the basis that it should be a multiracial party and should be economically for the biggest number of people. Those were the fundamental ideas that have sustained DAP.

Over the years, DAP’s top leaders have been very clear about pursuing a coalition policy and strategy. We are not there to go in as a party but as a coalition. But our opponents singled us out and we have leaders who think that they have to compete on the fringes.

As a party, DAP is more centrist than most people think.

TMI: Louder voices do not reflect that?

Liew: We were being projected as such. Our opponents wanted to show that DAP is a party of extremists. Of course, there are people who fall into this and others who do it for the limelight. But if you look at the core leadership, it is committed to PH. It is committed to the idea that we shape Malaysia for everyone.

Over the last two years, there was a concerted effort to raise the temperature on the Malay and the non-Malay end. While there were people who fell for it, nonetheless the core leaders believed we should be in a centrist position.

TMI: How do you define the centre?

Liew: We are not here to compete with MCA, MIC or Umno and PAS. Electorally, only a centrist coalition can win power in this country. From the very beginning, from early 2019, Umno and PAS were not pursuing an electoral strategy but a strategy to burn the house down.

TMI: What has DAP learnt from the episode?

Liew: DAP has been used as the bogeyman for a long time now. To the extent, there were already attempts by October 2019 by Hishammuddin Hussein (former Umno vice-president) calling for DAP and Amanah to be sacked in order to form a government that is in favour of Bangsa Malaysia.

The original sin of DAP was forming a quorum for Anwar Ibrahim. That was why DAP was targeted. DAP was supporting the transition idea which was agreed on in January 2017.

So, they thought by sacking DAP and Amanah, Anwar would have no more claims to the prime minister’s post. That was the basis of all the other challenges. Racial issues were added to the recipe to make DAP look bad.

But the origin of all these was the distrust at the top.

For us to go into the next round, we need to build trust and an identity for what we stand for. This is not just on ethnic policies but also economic issues to connect to the largest group of people in order to move forward.

TMI: Bersatu has blamed DAP as the cause of the break-up. Have DAP leaders played a role in strengthening this narrative?

Liew: The central leadership is aware of the need to be centrist but when you are attacked on a daily basis, you react. On the Malay front we were faced with the allegation that DAP and (secretary-general) Lim Guan Eng were running the government while on the non-Malay front, we were alleged to be silent. But both were wrong.

In the day-to-day battle, not everyone was consistent. Sometimes we were under pressure and we fell into the opponents’ framing. Our leaders had fallen into the racial framing. I don’t deny there were such instances.

The Malay parties also fell into the racial framing. We were pulled apart by the extremists and eventually we became a half-term government.

These are lessons for everyone. For the country to move forward we would have to come back to see how to build democratic institutions, build media literacy for our grassroots leaders to not to fall to fake news and racial framing.

These are challenges we have to face as a society. We will have to ask how we understand each other. Do we see Malays, Chinese and Indians as single units? This is racial framing.

I started my political journey during the reformasi era. On one of the first instances on September 20, 1998, when we were demonstrating in front of Sri Perdana, we were doused by water canons.

At that time, there were just 5% Chinese students, the rest were Malays. When the water came, it didn’t care whether you were Malay, Chinese or Indian. It just shot at us. I never thought of myself as a Chinese politically but a Malaysian.

Culturally I am entirely educated in Chinese. I speak and write fluent Chinese but the Malaysian mindset for the reform generation is very strong. When you face the power of water canons and the state, you run together. You don’t think about your race.

PH is able to survive since 2008 because the Malay votes for us in Selangor have consistently been above 50%. This is despite all the racial framing. This is because there are Malays who don’t buy into racial framing.

We will have to build on everyone who doesn’t believe in racial politics.

TMI: Some of the allegations against DAP were about its ministers, in particular in the Finance Ministry.

Liew: I think at the cabinet level, there were things that you did for the first time and there were differences of opinion. I was not in the cabinet. Styles can differ but whatever happened at Sheraton Hotel was not over style.

It was about trying to manipulate the differences between Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar in order to facilitate the rise of a government without the latter.

The original idea was just to remove DAP and replace it with Hishammuddin’s 22 members of parliament and PAS’ 18. But all along, those were the ideas and the rest were just spices to facilitate the original plan for Azmin Ali to deny Anwar.

The October plan last year did not succeed because Dr Mahathir went to the Malay Dignity Congress and did not agree to their agenda. At that time, their agenda was to have a government without DAP.

In hindsight, you know that Dr Mahathir was in the middle, neither on this side or that side. – April 26, 2020.