DAP not planning to leave, abandon Anwar, says Loke

 DAP will hold a congress on Aug 16 to decide whether its leaders should resign from their government positions.

DAP secretary-general Loke Siew Fook said the party must respond to election outcomes.

PETALING JAYA:

Although DAP will soon assess whether its leaders should remain part of the unity government, the party is still committed to supporting Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, its secretary-general Loke Siew Fook said.

DAP will hold a congress on Aug 16 to decide whether its leaders should resign from their government positions following the party’s poor performance in the Sabah election last November.

Speaking on a podcast last night, Loke said DAP could not afford to ignore its wipeout in Sabah, where it lost all eight seats it contested, including six to Warisan.

Loke said a political party’s survival depended on voters, making it necessary for DAP to reassess its direction following the electoral setback.

“As a political party, we must respond to election outcomes. If we pretend nothing happened, people will say we have not learnt from it and are not sensitive to the people’s voices.

“But it does not mean we are leaving (the government) or abandoning the prime minister. No,” he said on the Tiger Show podcast by Astro Awani.

Loke, the transport minister, previously stressed that DAP’s MPs would continue supporting the government until the next general election, regardless of the congress’s outcome.

He also insisted that DAP would not withdraw its support for the unity government or take part in any attempts to overthrow the government.

Speaking on the podcast, Loke admitted that DAP’s participation in the government had involved trade-offs and subjected the party to constant public scrutiny.

While acknowledging that DAP had been criticised for being “less vocal” since taking up positions in the government, he insisted that the party, which has five ministers, continued to raise key issues in the Cabinet.

“We speak in the Cabinet, not through the media. But Cabinet meetings are confidential, so people do not know what is being discussed,” he said.

“If we choose to stay in government, we must defend the government and find ways to regain public support through that platform.

“But if we only want to criticise or make our voices heard from the outside, then we will have to leave the government’s ranks.” - FMT