Gerakan told to quit senatorships, BN posts following exit

A Pakatan Harapan leader has called on Gerakan to quit its BN-appointed positions following the party's decision to exit the former ruling coalition.

"The last noble thing for Gerakan to do after leaving BN is to have their two senators, their representative in the Kuala Lumpur City Council (DBKL) advisory board and their many other political appointees in various federal and state agencies resign from their BN-appointed positions.

"They were BN appointees, and now that they are leaving BN, they should also do the honourable thing by resigning from the positions, which were given to them by the BN, (and) completely disassociating themselves from their previous partnership," said Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng on a statement today.

He lauded the party's exit as "better late than never", for taking a stand after their "humiliating" total wipe out at the 14th general election.

"Though it's a general election too late for Gerakan to finally make the decision, it is still better late than never to cut ties with the corrupt political coalition.

"This Gerakan's unsurprising and belated decision is also a wise one and political correct, unlike the other remorseless and recalcitrant BN parties such as MCA and MIC," said Lim.

However, said the DAP lawmaker, Gerakan owed the nation an apology for not speaking up on the massive 1MDB scandal as a BN member.

"Gerakan, however, has yet to apologise to the rakyat over 1MDB, the world’s biggest financial scandal.

"Their secretary-general sat in the public accounts committee (PAC) and yet he defended 1MDB.

"The PAC reports have since been made public, and the reports clearly show that what was happening in 1MDB was not above board,” said Lim.

“Why is it so hard for Gerakan to apologise for being with the corrupted regime and closing their eyes as the nation was being robbed blind?”

Following BN's unprecedented defeat at the May 9 polls, some of its leaders still claim the 1MDB scandal, the subject of money-laundering probes around the world, was nothing but “opposition slander”.

Pakatan Harapan's prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, after reopening the case following his ascent to Putrajaya, said the government has a strong case against the perpetrators of what the US has called the worst case of kleptocracy ever seen. - Mkini