[Watch] Karpal Singh’s Daughter Named Ahmad Zahid’s DNAA, SPRM Allegations And UMNO Attacks At DAP Congress

88% of DAP delegates voted to keep their ministers in Cabinet, but before the result was announced, one delegate had already begun preparing for the alternative.

Nga Kor Ming

In Brief

Sangeet Kaur Deo named Ahmad Zahid's DNAA, SPRM allegations, and UMNO's attacks on DAP, yet still voted to remain in government.
DAP delegates voted 88.2% to stay in Anwar's unity government, though notably fewer than half of eligible delegates attended the congress.
Secretary-General Anthony Loke acknowledged DAP's three consecutive state election losses and the party's persistent struggle to win Malay voters.

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The motion passed, the ministers stayed, the party celebrated.

The DAP held its national congress at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre on Sunday (16 August) and resolved, by secret ballot, for its five full ministers and seven deputy ministers to remain in Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s unity government.

Of 2,106 ballots cast, 1,857 — 88.2% — voted to stay. 242, or 11.5%, voted to leave.

Seven ballots were spoilt.

The decision removes the most immediate threat to the administration’s stability and makes an early general election significantly less likely before the parliamentary term expires in February 2028.

Secretary-General Anthony Loke called it a mandate to push for reforms from within.

A Kuala Lumpur delegate called it 18 months to speak up before possibly becoming the opposition again.

The Number Nobody Led With

Of the 4,264 delegates eligible to attend, 2,223 showed up.

Fewer than half the party’s eligible delegates were present at a congress framed, for months, as the most consequential vote in DAP’s recent history.

Of those who attended, 2,106 cast ballots.

In a secret ballot — no whip, no cameras on individual hands, no career consequences visible in the room — 242 delegates chose the option that would have destabilised the federal government.

That is not a fringe.

That is one in nine.

All 14 state delegates who spoke made the case for staying, with the arguments ranging from principled to pragmatic to plainly anxious.

DAP Selangor’s Shakir Ameer Mohideen said the party had fought too long to walk away over setbacks.

DAP Sarawak’s Soo Tien Ren said leaving now would be political suicide and an abandonment of the millions who had voted DAP into government.

Karpal Singh’s Daughter Named What Others Did Not

Then DAP Kuala Lumpur’s Sangeet Kaur Deo, the daughter of the late prominent Malaysian lawyer and DAP stalwart, Datuk Seri Karpal Singh, spoke.

She said voters had questioned DAP’s silence on too many issues, and she named the discharge not amounting to an acquittal granted to Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi on 47 corruption charges.

She cited media reports alleging collusion between the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (SPRM) and a group of businessmen in corporate disputes — allegations former SPRM chief Tan Sri Azam Baki has denied.

She said DAP could not, in her assessment, continue to work with UMNO, which had openly attacked DAP while sitting in the same federal government.

Then she voted to stay anyway.

So stay in government and speak up while we are there. And if we must become opposition again, at least we have laid the basis and regained credibility.

No party leader responded to the substance of her remarks at the press conference.

The Mandate, And What Loke Said It Was Not

At the post-congress press conference, Loke thanked delegates for the mandate.

He rejected suggestions that the vote was designed to pressure Anwar, saying the reform agenda — separating the roles of Attorney-General and Public Prosecutor, a two-term limit for the Prime Minister, anti-corruption measures — represented commitments shared across Pakatan Harapan, not a DAP-specific demand.

On timelines, he said the government should be given time to implement reforms, and that not everything could be discussed openly in the media.

We are part of the government. We are part of the cabinet. We will bring all our aspirations and the feedback from our grassroots back to the government through our cabinet channel.

He also raised cost-of-living concerns, including a review of petrol and diesel quotas for Sabah and Sarawak.

Three Elections, Three Setbacks

DAP called the congress after losing all eight seats it contested in the November 2025 Sabah state election.

The congress was originally scheduled for 12 July but was postponed following the Johor and Negeri Sembilan state elections, in which DAP’s seat count fell from 10 to six and from 11 to nine respectively.

Loke, who had held the Chennah seat in Negeri Sembilan for three consecutive terms, lost it in that election.

He apologised to delegates on Sunday and acknowledged the party’s persistent difficulty winning Malay voters.