Loke stands firm on resignation as minister

 DAP secretary-general Loke Siew Fook says he will submit his resignation letter upon returning to Malaysia from China.

DAP secretary-general Loke Siew Fook had earlier been urged by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to reconsider his decision.

PETALING JAYA:

DAP secretary-general Loke Siew Fook says he remains firm in his decision to resign as the transport minister following the conditional pardon granted to former prime minister Najib Razak.

Loke said he would submit his resignation letter upon returning to Malaysia from China, where he is on an official working visit with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Bernama reported.

“The decision has been made. I will submit (the resignation letter) to the prime minister upon my return,” he told reporters briefly after arriving in Hangzhou today.

The three-day working visit to Shanghai and Hangzhou is at the invitation of the Chinese government.

Earlier, Anwar said he had urged Loke to reconsider his resignation and that DAP should not succumb to pressure from those who wanted the party to withdraw from the government simply to destabilise the administration.

He reiterated that he would further discuss the matter with Loke to hear his official explanation and ask him to reconsider the resignation.

Loke had maintained that DAP’s decision that only he should step down was a “responsible one”.

He said his resignation, if accepted by Anwar, would not jeopardise the transport ministry’s operations.

DAP’s central executive committee (CEC) had decided that only Loke would resign as minister over the conditional pardon granted to Najib. The party will remain in the government and its other ministers will stay in the Cabinet.

Oriental Daily had quoted an unnamed DAP leader as saying that housing and local government minister Nga Kor Ming offered to resign during the DAP CEC meeting but Loke persuaded him to remain in the Cabinet. - FMT