I’m ready to go if members don’t support me, says Loke

 

DAP secretary-general Loke Siew Fook said if the party quits Anwar Ibrahim’s government it would be forced to go back to the drawing board.

PETALING JAYA: Loke Siew Fook said he is prepared to resign as DAP secretary-general if members no longer have confidence in his leadership.

Loke said that members must have full confidence in their secretary-general as it was the secretary-general who led the party.

“I was blunt with them,” he said, referring to members he met at a recent party retreat. “I told them, ‘If you had no confidence in me as the secretary-general, find someone else and tell me’.”

Loke said this in the latest episode of the Keluar Sekejap podcast co-hosted by former Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin and former Umno information chief, Shahril Hamdan.

Unhappy DAP members

The DAP secretary-general admitted that there was still some dissatisfaction among members over the Pardons Board decision to halve former prime minister Najib Razak’s sentence for his graft conviction to six years.

There was also unhappiness over the conditional discharge accorded to deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi over 47 graft charges, Loke said.

However he questioned if quitting Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s administration would be the best option for DAP, as it would mean the government would lose its majority and the party would be forced to go back to the drawing board.

“Is that what we want right now? The answer is no and I’m confident that the grassroots is of the same view.

“But yes, we are under pressure to ensure support for us is not reduced and we can do that via good governance and curbing corruption.”

Loke said that while there were constraints on the government that were beyond its control, they would deliver where they could.

On DAP and MCA

He denied Khairy’s claims that his answers were similar to ones provided by MCA when the party was previously in government.

Loke said DAP was outperforming MCA. “We go through the proper channels if there are issues to raise. It’s not like we don’t state our stand.

“I don’t know how MCA did it in the past, but we are very direct with the prime minister.” - FMT