Don’t be rubbish collector, DAP man tells Dr M after Sabah Umno exodus

(FMT) – A Selangor DAP leader has urged Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad not to allow a “reverse takeover” of PPBM by Umno, following yesterday’s exodus of members from the party’s Sabah chapter.

Ronnie Liu, who was voted into the Selangor DAP committee on Sunday, said he recalled the PPBM chairman calling “the Umno guys ‘useless’ and ‘rubbish’” at a meeting just before the May 9 polls.

He said Mahathir had also assured those present, including himself and Hindraf leader P Waytha Moorthy, that he would not accept “frogs” from Umno.

“Well, sir, if they are such useless rubbish, I certainly hope you won’t be a rubbish collector and take them into PPBM,” Liu said in a post on his Patreon page, a subscription content service for online creators.

He added that Mahathir, who is chairman of Pakatan Harapan (PH) had already “broken his promise twice” by taking Jeli MP Mustapa Mohamed and Bagan Serai MP Noor Azmi Ghazali into PPBM’s fold.

The former Umno lawmakers had left the party after the 14th general election which saw Barisan Nasional booted out of power for the first time by Mahathir’s coalition of DAP, PPBM, Amanah and PKR.

Liu, who is Sungai Pelek assemblyman, said if Mahathir accepted the former Sabah Umno leaders, it would be seen as a betrayal of voters who had elected to remove the party from government.

“Don’t tell me now you want them to come back into the government through a PPBM backdoor?” he added.

Yesterday, 36 elected representatives, senators and division heads in Sabah announced that they were leaving Umno, effectively crippling the party’s state chapter which was established in 1991.

Although the four MPs and nine state assemblymen who left said they were now independents, speculation is rife that their move was in preparation for their joining PPBM, which has yet to start its chapter in Sabah.

Fuelling such talk was confirmation by Mahathir yesterday that several Sabah Umno leaders had approached him before their decision.

But the prime minister refused to say if the party-less MPs would find a new home in PPBM.

“We have to see how they behave. If they are supportive and didn’t do anything wrong in the past, we will accept them,” he told reporters last night.

In his post, Liu acknowledged that PPBM had “only very few” MPs compared to DAP and PKR but voiced hope that the party would be able to win more seats, urging Mahathir to be “patient”.

“Why try to grow big fast like this?” he asked. “This is not the right way.

“Do you know at one time, PKR had only one MP (Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail)? Do you know at one time, DAP was reduced to only nine MPs? We persevered and we grew organically. That is the way to do it.

“If you allow a reverse takeover of PPBM by Umno, it will ruin whatever good things you have done for PH. Don’t let this happen.”