I refer to Mahmud Abas's letter 'Kit Siang - the unsung hero'. I think Mahmud has totally misunderstood the points raised by CK Chew of Lunas.

Whether his points are right or wrong, CK Chew was talking about DAP, not its national chairperson Lim Kit Siang. Seen in this light, Mahmud seems to have equated DAP with Lim. This wrong equation can only stem from a cult of personality-based uncritical thinking.

On the seat negotiations, no one from Keadilan has attacked Lim personally. No one has said that he is useless or does not deserve wider recognition. Lim is not the issue here.

In fact, even after DAP repeatedly attacked Keadilan in the last few years, and despite DAP's unilateral withdrawal from BA, Lim is always invited as a VIP to many important BA functions.

For example, he was seated with all the VIPs in the recent inaugural assembly of the merged Parti Keadilan Rakyat. He was also one of the VIPs to the wedding dinner of Anwar Ibrahim's daughter.

The veteran opposition leader is recognised and respected by all sincere and honest oppositionists, whatever their race or religion.

The current problem stems from the attitude and misguided belief of the top leadership of DAP.

To put it mildly, it is immature, arrogant, irresponsible, boastful, and fearful of the social and political changes in the last few years in Malaysia that it sees as disruptive to its self-image as an alternative to MCA and Gerakan.

It is nothing wrong to see itself as a better alternative to MCA and Gerakan. MCA and Gerakan are, in my opinion, politically corrupt. The problem is that given its self-image, DAP does not seem to focus its attacks on MCA and Gerakan over the last few years.

Instead, it concentrates its energy on fellow oppositionists in PAS, Keadilan and PRM as if it has become the unofficial sniper of Umno against Malay and Muslim oppositionists.

It is a really silly, immature, irresponsible and shortsighted strategy, if we can call it a strategy. What would DAP gain by this?

The newspapers of Umno and MCA are certainly delighted to exploit DAP's irresponsibility. After losing friends and allies, DAP will then be highly vulnerable to attacks by Umno, MCA and Gerakan.

DAP must not entertain the illusion that just because the mainstream media reported the press statements of Lim Kit Siang, Karpal Singh, Dr Cen Man Hin or Kerk Kim Hock against other opposition parties, Umno and MCA therefore loves or recognise DAP.

They are merely using their newspapers to exploit DAP's irresponsibility to weaken and destroy the opposition as a whole.

DAP must not be exploited again in the alliance-breaking strategy of BN just because it is desperate for media publicity and exposure.

Without friends and allies, DAP is fast becoming irrelevant. In this era, numbers of grassroots members, supporters, followers and sympathisers count more than the self-deceptive virtual reality of five or six press statements issued every day.

Thus, one solution to the impasse of seat allocation is to use the meritocractic principle as the final criteria. That is to say, in disputed constituencies, DAP must show that it has more verifiable members and branches than Keadilan, and that its proposed candidates are formally more educated. Only these two criteria are convincing, not racial sentiment or self-image.

To use 'Chineseness' to make claim on seats is not only against the principle of meritocracy, but a great betrayal of DAP's self-proclaimed ideology of 'Malaysian Malaysia'.