In Perak, 38 leave DAP for PCM over discontent with Dr M alliance
(MMO) – Thirty-eight people from the Kampar and Tapah divisions resigned from the DAP after refusing to accept their top leadership’s decision to cooperate with former prime minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad.
The 38 were part of over 70 people who joined Parti Cinta Malaysia’s (PCM) newly formed Kampar division here today.
“There was a time where DAP would criticise Mahathir every day, calling him corrupt and a dictator.
“Suddenly they made an abrupt U-turn and they’re asking the Chinese community to do the same,” PCM deputy president Datuk Huan Cheng Guan told a news conference at the launch.
“The late Karpal Singh would never have done this. He was a man of principle, unlike Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng,” he added.
Karpal was the DAP chairman until he was killed in a road accident on April 17, 2014 while journeying back to his hometown in Penang from Kuala Lumpur.
Lim Kit Siang is DAP parliamentary leader while his son Guan Eng is the federal Opposition party’s secretary-general.
Among the most notable DAP departures is Richard Leong Soon Fatt who was the party’s Tapah liaison committee chairman and Chenderiang branch chairman.
Leong said the DAP cooperation with Dr Mahathir who left Umno and founded his own party, the all-Bumiputera Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, was a “let down” after having served the Chinese-majority party for 10 years.
“When I joined the party, I respected what they were fighting for. People like Kit Siang, Guan Eng, and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim were even jailed because of their fight.
“Now they are shaking hands. If I was jailed like that, I could never shake hands with the person responsible. I just couldn’t accept working with someone who uses that kind of politics,” Leong said.
He believed many voters in Malaysia shared his sentiments.
“If they were able to accept it, there wouldn’t be an UndiRosak movement,” he added.
Dr Mahathir was prime minister from 1981 to October 2003 and had been criticised for abusing his authority and using archaic laws to quell dissent against his government, most notably the Internal Security Act 1948 — now abolished — which allowed for detentions without trial.
The DAP leaders and members were among over 100 government critics, academics, activists and writers detained during the notorious Operation Lalang in 1987, purportedly to prevent the recurrence of a racial riot.
The Kampar division is PCM’s first in Perak.
Huan said it was likely that the party would be contesting in the Kampar area, but refused to get into specifics.
“We haven’t decided whether we will be going for parliament or state seats.
“It’s still early. We are a small party and we have to start small,” he said.
