Warisan lands 3 DAP personalities, first Peninsula rep

 

(From left) Selangor assemblyman Brian Lai, former Jelutong MP Jeff Ooi and former Penang state executive councillor Danny Law said they are joining Warisan.

KOTA KINABALU: Three prominent former DAP politicians have announced joining Warisan, the largely Sabah-based party which recently spread its wings to the Peninsula.

Selangor state assemblyman Brian Lai became Warisan’s first elected representative in the Peninsula, while two former Penang DAP personalities are also joining the party – Jeff Ooi, a former two-term Jelutong MP, and Danny Law, a former state executive councillor and party stalwart.

Others joining Warisan are former MIC central working committee member Sunther Subramaniam and former Johor state assemblyman Suhaimi Salleh.

Ooi said he had submitted his resignation to DAP this evening. Law had announced his departure on Tuesday, while Lai had left DAP in April last year and remained an independent member of the Selangor state assembly.

Lai, who represents Teratai in Cheras, said he and his supporters had been waiting to join Warisan for some time and believed Warisan to be the only true multi-racial party in the country.

“We will work very hard to ensure (Warisan president) Shafie Apdal becomes the next prime minister after the 15th general election,” he said at a party function here tonight. “He is an open minded and moderate leader, and we need this kind of leader.”

At the same event, Ooi said he wanted to bring Sabah’s model “family spirit” to the Peninsula, as politics in the mainland were “too toxic and racist”.

He said he and Law had prepared a political strategy for Warisan in Penang and had collated pertinent data for the party.

He told FMT later that he had handed in his resignation by chat message to the party’s organising secretary, Loke Siew Fook, at 5.30pm.

Ooi was Jelutong MP for two terms and was dropped in the 2018 election. Law, a three-term Penang assemblyman and two-term state executive councillor, was also dropped as an election candidate in 2018 and held no positions in DAP since.

Law said his foray into Warisan was a “good opportunity to continue his political struggle towards a multiracial country”. - FMT