Dr Kua Kia Song made a number of mistakes besides making some accusations against his former party (DAP) in his article entitled 'Coalition politics for dummies' (Aug 13).

1) PAS was never a member of Gagasan

Kua claimed that the DAP pulled out of Gagasan in 1995 when PAS was then seen as the main stumbling block to Chinese support for DAP. Kua, as a former CEC member of the party, should know that PAS was never a partner in the Gagasan, and the very reason DAP left the Gagasan was because Semangat 46 had decided to switch its struggle from greater democracy to racial supremacy (Ketuanan Melayu) under the leadership of Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Rais Yatim. Its leadership even decided to change its party name to Parti Melayu before it disbanded and returned en bloc to Umno before Anwar Ibrahim was ousted from Umno.

2) The mission of BA: To break the BN's political hegemony

Kua went on to accuse that DAP's position vis--vis the Barisan Alternatif is not so much the product of political economic analysis as motivated by the needs of opportunistic politics. Kua's accusation has not only insulted the DAP but also all BA component parties, as the historic objective of the BA was not to share the spoils of powers, but to break the political hegemony of the Barisan Nasional government.

Kua has faulted DAP for making incredible demands on its BA partners, such as:

- Dictating who can join Keadilan;
- Demanding that PAS abandons its Islamic state ideology; and
- Deciding the main enemy.

3) DAP turncoats do more harm than good to BA partners

DAP has a valid reason in requesting Keadilan and other BA partners not to accept its party turncoats and controversial figures because not only they will immediately cause difficulties in inter-party relationship and cooperation, they can bring more harm than good to our partners as most of them are political opportunists.

One typical case is Dominic Ng of Sarawak. He attacked the DAP before joining Keadilan only months before the 1999 general elections. He resigned from Keadilan and stood as an independent candidate when his party decided not to field him and agreed that the DAP should be contesting in the traditional Kuching parliamentary seat.

This tussle stirred up much confusion among the supporters and voters and BA eventually lost the seat to BN in a three-cornered fight. But Dominic Ng was allowed to rejoin Keadilan without a question soon after the election. And he is now reportedly asking for the traditional Padungan state seat from the DAP. There is really no end to the demand of such opportunistic characters.

As a matter of fact, the party has not stopped any members and leaders who left amicably. A few of them are now holding key positions in Keadilan Youth.

4) DAP respects PAS' ideology

Kua accuses DAP of demanding that PAS abandons its Islamic state ideology. That is a total untruth. Yes, DAP has repeatedly said that the party is objecting to the setting up of an Islamic state in Malaysia (or any theocratic state for that matter). But DAP has never (privately or openly) made such an unreasonable demand.

What DAP hopes to achieve is to impress upon every BA partner to recognise and accept the political realities in a multiracial, multi-religious society like ours, and that PAS would not impose the concept of Islamic state as long as it is in BA. DAP wants all Malaysians to know that a vote for BA is not a vote for Islamic state. This is not an incredible demand.

5) DAP's ideology: Democratic socialism

The ideology of DAP is, of course, democratic socialism. 'Malaysian Malaysia' is a slogan to encapsulate the party's struggle for equality, freedom, justice and democracy regardless of one's race, religion and creed. Kua should know this better than others as he was the political education director of the party for five years. He should blame no one if he himself was not interested at all to touch on democratic socialism during his full tenure as the political education director of DAP.

The party has been a member of Socialist International ever since its inception in 1966. We treasure our link with this international organisation, and we have been fairly active in meetings and activities organised by SI in recent years. We have no reason to leave SI as we found it useful and meaningful. Maybe Kua should tell us exactly where and when he got the story that the party CEC was considering pulling out of the SI.

It is unfair to pass general remarks (such as quoting Marx out of context) on Hew Kuan Yau (Qiu Guangyao) just because Hew has been trying to share his understanding and knowledge on democratic socialism with Malaysian readers through his numerous writings and books (three so far).

Hew has done more than Kua as far as promoting democratic socialism within and outside the party is concerned. It was also wrong for Kua to accuse Hew for running down streets demonstrations as Hew himself has participated in some of the demonstrations organised by the BA and the reformasi movement.

6) BN is BA's common enemy

What is the motive of the writer in insinuating that DAP does not know its 'main' enemy? Is he trying to say that PAS is actually one of our enemies? PAS is not DAP's enemy, regardless of whether PAS is a partner or not in the BA. BN is DAP's enemy. It is also the common enemy of BA. There is no question about it. Kua should really mind his own analysis if he cannot even see this.