The irony, of course, is that this whole Registrar of Societies (ROS) fiasco about the validity of DAP’s central executive committee (CEC), use of logo and the supposed conspiracy to ban the party is a ticking time bomb of DAP’s own design. Like many issues, this one should have been addressed a long time ago in a transparent manner and whoever is in control of the party should have put the interest of DAP ahead of individual interests. Instead, it has become a time bomb with a nervous Umno finger on the detonator, made worse by the DAP provoking a pre-emptive detonation.

When you are dealing with a hegemon which controls the bureaucracy, there is no room for error when it comes to the legitimacy of the party and the credibility of its leaders. In my piece about the prolonged amateur hour of the DAP, I (once) again reminded DAP to stop supplying their political opponents with ammunition.

For instance, when the grand poohbah’s press secretary Tengku Sariffuddin Tengku Ahmad reminds the DAP that it was their lifelong members who lodged the original complaint and have not withdrawn it, he is absolutely correct. There is no point in PKR's communications director Fahmi Fadzil calling it a “desperado” act because this is what Umno does, but the problem is that the allegations brought by DAP members in their complaint to ROS also illustrates that the DAP engages in political acts which go against the principles of democracy. So, it really does not matter which Umno organ recognises the legitimacy of the CEC, it should not have open to political attacks in the first place.

Furthermore, it is pointless arguing about who started the speculation on DAP facing deregistration as articulated by party secretary-general and Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng because all of it is political theatre anyway. In case anybody does not get what this means, it means it really does not matter anyway. This is a regime which has very little understanding of fair play - and this is the important part - this is a regime which received the support of the majority of Malaysians (including non-Malays) for decades, which means until recently the majority of Malaysians did not care about political fair play either.

Even if the Umno establishment manages to deregister the DAP, the reality is that every DAP member standing for election will get the support of their base, no matter which logo they are contesting under and which party they choose to seek shelter with.

It would not surprise me if the Umno hegemon does use this as the means for deregistering DAP. It also would not surprise me that there would be a crackdown in the upcoming elections but the reality is that they (Umno) know that whatever they do will not erode the support DAP has or erode the support that partisan opposition supporters have for their preferred parties. What everyone is worried about is the support of the fence sitters and that the sympathy vote goes a long way.