18 - Kapayan, Sabah: Silent Winds of Change

Summary

ENTERING PARTY POLITICS

On 6 January 2017, I decided to join the Democratic Action Party (DAP) because of its commitment to the struggle of women in Malaysia. DAP had demonstrated sincerity and resolve in empowering women in politics.

In 2015, the party's leadership made a constitutional change to set a minimum quota of 30 per cent of women at the Central Executive Committee (CEC) level. It was a positive step to encourage more women to participate in politics, especially at decision-making levels—an initiative many women saw as a turning point for DAP's campaign. At the ground level, party leaders consciously started to appoint women leaders in all Sabah parliamentary seats where DAP is active, and to hold talks with women leaders to engage their participation. These women leaders, in turn, mobilized other women, especially in Sandakan, Penampang and the state's interior, to be actively involved in gearing up for GE-14.

In March 2017, DAP Sabah appointed me Ketua Wanita (Women's Chief) and a member of the DAP State Committee, because there were vacancies following the crossover of seven DAP committee members to Parti Warisan Sabah. Although I had worked in the non-governmental organization (NGO) sphere for more than thirty years, as someone who was new to politics, I still had to lot to learn about internal party dynamics. The crossovers, coupled with recently concluded and divisive party elections, posed major challenges to DAP Sabah's preparation for GE-14. However, thanks to the firm advice by Lim Kit Siang to immediately appoint replacements, DAP Sabah was able to move forward.

I had no idea about party structure when I joined, but there was speculation that state elections might be held as early as May 2017, so I immediately began to mobilize support from women voters. My forte is in building networks, so organizing existing Sabah women leaders into campaign teams was easy enough, especially with very supportive DAP state and national leaders. A personal challenge then was the internal friction between the DAP Sabah chairman and the then Kapayan Assemblyman and DAP Sabah deputy chairman, Edwin Bosi, which already existed when I joined DAP.