DAP leaders can leave Pakatan if not happy, says PPBM
(NST) – Pakatan Harapan (PH) component parties should re-examine themselves following the coalition’s defeat in the recent Tanjung Piai parliamentary by-election and not pin the blame solely on Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu).
Bersatu Bagan division Youth chief Sayyid Mohammed Mubarak said the PH leadership should take the opportunity to address their own shortcomings and not try to sabotage one another.
“DAP should not be ungrateful… I hope the DAP leadership will control their own people when issuing statements, which is seen as ‘shooting oneself in the foot’.
“PH has its own channel for those who want to express their views. So ‘don’t wash your dirty linen in public’,” he said in reference to postings by DAP’s Seberang Prai City councillor David Marshel on his Facebook page following the coalition’s defeat.
In one of the postings, he had insinuated a new prime minister.
Sayyid said PH should not forget that without Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, they would not be able to form the government today.
He said DAP should equally bear responsibility for the coalition’s defeat and re-examine themselves as the party too had failed to attract the 41 per cent Chinese voters in Tanjung Piai.
“I hope the DAP leader will be mindful of their words so as to ensure it won’t affect the unity within PH.
“If David, who is also (Deputy Chief Minister II) Dr P. Ramasamy’s right hand man, dislikes Tun M’s leadership, perhaps he can leave PH and form a new party with Ramasamy. Enough is enough. We should stop the blame game.
“I also hope DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng will guide and advice his people, especially David, to be more matured in issuing statements in the future to protect the harmony among component parties in PH,” he added.
Sayyid said all should be patient as PH had only formed the government for more than a year now and had fulfilled 52 per cent of the manifesto it lined up in the 14th General Election (GE14).
Barisan Nasional (BN) took back the Tanjung Piai parliamentary seat by a huge 15,086-vote majority on Saturday, 18 months after it lost the seat in the last general election to PH.
BN’s Datuk Seri Dr Wee Jeck Seng, who had been a two-term Tanjung Piai Member of Parliament in the past, polled 25,466 votes, while PH’s candidate Karmaine Sardini received 10,380 votes.
Gerakan’s Wendy Subramaniam garnered 1,707 votes and Berjasa candidate Datuk Dr Badhrulhisham Abdul Aziz polled 850 votes. The two Independent candidates, Faridah Aryani Abd Ghani and Dr Ang Chuan Lock, only garnered 380 and 32 votes, respectively.
