On joining the wrong party:
Some have suggested that Mr Damanhuri Abas has joined the wrong party: had he joined WP, he would have had a higher chance of getting elected.
(For my friends of different or no faiths who may not understand the significance of this matter, this guy is the real deal. He is someone who has truly been ‘on the ground’ and has been active in many grassroots activities over so many years (real grassroots activities; not merely helping out at the MPS a couple of years before being unveiled as a candidate, and then claiming that ‘i have always wanted to help others’. This man is quite respected in the community.)
The suggestion is perhaps right: WP definitely poses more of a threat to PAP than SDP does. However, one has to ask this question: could Mr Damanhuri have mentioned all those things he did in his first press conference had he been in WP? Could he have been as forthcoming and blunt as he was about discrimination if the careful WP was the conducting the press conference? Probably not.
So the challenge then goes to WP: is it willing to openly champion minority issues as much as SDP does? And perhaps the larger questions are: will WP continue to tread down this conservative, non-committal path on such issues, and if so, what really is the difference between PAP and WP?
On another note, it is highly refreshing to see someone joining a party based on his convictions, rather than on probability of electoral success. We will never have a shortage of people who want to join the ruling party to cause ‘change from within’, and to be honest, the more successful WP becomes, the more it will attract people who wants to try to ‘change from within’. But it is extremely rare, to have capable people – not disgruntled nobodies – who make a huge sacrifice and join a party, just so as to be true to his/her beliefs.
For that, this man deserves a ton of respect.
Source: Walid J. Abdullah
