DAP says PKR, Amanah's decision to court ex-Umno reps is wrong

 

DAP has voiced opposition to PKR and Amanah's decision to continue to court Idris Haron and another former Malacca Umno assemblyperson ahead of the upcoming state election.

Its secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said the DAP central executive committee had resolved last night to reject all four of the Idris quartet but finds it has only managed to convince its partners in Pakatan Harapan to reject two.

This is after PKR president Anwar Ibrahim, who is also the coalition chairperson, said that they were still considering fielding two of the Idris quartet members in the Malacca polls.

Lim (above) said DAP had been outvoted on the matter by PKR and Amanah, and is compelled to abide by the majority decision in the interest of coalition unity.

"However, this does not mean that such a majority decision previously made is correct.

"DAP hopes that good sense will prevail within Harapan and urges our Harapan allies to choose those who are sincere towards the aspirations of Harapan and not those motivated by sheer political opportunism

"Harapan must not make the same mistake again by losing the moral high ground to allow the final two of the four assemblypersons to stand as Harapan candidates in the Malacca state election," Lim said in a statement.

This partly corroborates a statement by PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli, who accused Amanah of pushing Harapan to accept the quartet.

The Malacca snap election was triggered last month after an unsuccessful political coup against the Umno-led state government, which saw four pro-government assemblypersons withdrawing their support for then chief minister Sulaiman Md Ali.

Besides Idris, the three others are Nor Azman Hassan (Umno-Pantai Kundor), Noor Effandi Ahmad (Bersatu-Telok Mas) and Norhizam Hassan Baktee (Independent-Pengkalan Batu).

The opposition coalition has rejected Norhizam outright - whose previous defection from DAP contributed to the Harapan-led Malacca government's collapse.

It appears that Noor Effandi has also been ruled out as Bersatu's defection from Harapan also triggered the coalition's downfall in the state.

However, Anwar has argued in favour of Idris and Nor Azman, saying the quartet only defected after negotiations with Harapan.

Others such as PKR vice-president Tian Chua said that the coalition should partner with anyone that could help achieve victory.

However, Lim argued against this.

"The ends do not justify the means, particularly when their commitment towards genuine political reforms that benefit the people and nation is suspect," he said.

Nomination day for the Malacca polls is Nov 8. - Mkini