COMMENT | DAP's challenge 2: How to escape 'bonsainisation'?

COMMENT | Regardless of the DAP party election outcome, there will be no splinter party or migration to another party, as what used to happen between MCA and Gerakan from the 1970s to the 1990s.

However, DAP is set to face two challenges, the first is well-known, discussed yesterday, is how not to be MCA 2.0.

Besides avoiding “MCAnisation”, DAP’s second challenge is to avoid “bonsainisation”, a situation where it can at best win a maximum number of seats but may lose some in worse situations. In the 16th general election, the ceiling is likely to be 40.

In GE15, DAP contested 51 seats and won 40, losing four seats to BN, three seats to Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) and one seat each to Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS), Warisan, Perikatan Nasional and Independent.

Of the 42 seats it won in GE14, two changed hands - Sarikei (Sarawak) to GPS-Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) and Tenom (Sabah) to an Independent.

Unless Pakatan Harapan decides to take on BN, GPS and GRS in GE16, DAP has no chance of winning the eight seats it lost to them in GE15.

The government candidate would come from...