The only way to go for DAP after pulling out of the Barisan Alternatif is to dissolve. It can no longer dream of the day it will run the federal or state government. Support from the non-Malays has been dwindling since 1991. Now that it's out of the BA, it's set to lose Malay support, too.

The DAP's dilemma has always been its inflexibility and its autocratic leadership. Leader Lim Kit Siang has always been a dictatorial boss, not unlike Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the Umno and Barisan Nasional leader. He has not been open to new ideas and has been intolerant of criticism, though granted there have been opportunists who have since left DAP.

Lim dug DAP's grave by resorting to extremist Chinese politics in the party's early days, such as hitting out at Malay dominance, a reality which he ought to have accepted and adapted to. By portraying himself as the champion of the oppressed Chinese, he created in the minds of many a Chinese voter that they were oppressed by Malays, and that their prime need was cultural equality with Malays.

While he did focus on the need for good governance and democracy, he chose to make defence of Chinese rights his major political campaign.

When Mahathir moved away from his one-time championing of Malay dominance in1991, the very year he launched his Vision 2020, BN successfully pulled the rug from under Lim's feet. Vision 2020 promised cultural and racial equality for all Malaysians in 30 years.

The Chinese and Indian Malaysians, by their upbringing, have been mostly conservative in their politics, favouring a capitalist economy and some authoritarian measures like the Internal Security Act, which they see not as a repressive tool but a security device that protects them from racists and religious fanatics.

Once BN fulfilled their desires for racial and cultural equality in 1991, they saw no more need to have an alternative government in the form of the socialist DAP.

The 1999 team-up with PAS, PRM and Keadilan, under an erroneous banner called Barisan Alternatif, gained DAP Malay support but obviously had no effect on Chinese support.

In fact, by giving the nod to the ridiculous coalition name (there is no alternative to the BN as long as it is big and strong), DAP's leader Lim was deemed by some Chinese as a traitor to his race.

It was his own fault, really. In the past, he acted as a Chinese champion, annoying many Malays. In his old age, he argued for pragmatism, which included an electoral pact with an enemy he once condemned as worse than communists.

Lim should just dissolve his rocket, take a holiday, then relinquish power to his son and successor, Lim Guan Eng, who is more educated and open-minded.

The younger Lim should rename the DAP as the Human Rights Party of Malaysia (Harapan, in short, meaning Hope). This new party should, like PRM, merely be a watchdog in parliament, checking on human rights abuses by the BN government, and refraining from raising racial issues that offend Malays and Muslims. The only thing it should not change is its harsh attacks on the powers that be.

While opposing extremist parties, they should also stay clear from Mahathir's cultural liberalism of mini-skirts and Bangsarian kiss-hug gestures. This is the very culture that invites extremism from the reactionaries, as it is not middle-of-the-road.

They should instead embrace the Green lifestyle of the US' Green Party, which combines modern, democratic, rationalist humanism with progressive Islamisation and Orang Asli culture. This shuns liberalism's culture of wasteful consumption, the very culture Mahathir promotes.

Until the ISA and Mahathir are gone, no Malaysian who is truly Malaysian should make peace with the status quo. It is our duty to denounce Mahathirism as long as it lasts.