Quit as DAP sec-gen too over Najib’s conditional pardon, Loke told

Urimai chairman P Ramasamy has called on DAP secretary-general Loke Siew Fook to step down from the party’s top post as well if he believes DAP’s handling of former prime minister Najib Razak’s conditional pardon represents a failure in the party’s political direction.

Ramasamy, a former DAP leader, said the more important question was not whether Loke resigned as transport minister, but whether he was prepared to accept political responsibility as the party’s secretary-general.

“If Loke genuinely believes that DAP has failed in its political direction over the Najib issue, he should come forward and resign as secretary-general together with other leaders who share responsibility for the party’s decisions.

“A Cabinet resignation alone does not resolve the deeper political problem facing DAP,” he said in a statement today.

Ramasamy also asked whether Loke was serious about resigning from the Cabinet, given that his resignation will only take effect when Najib begins serving the remainder of his sentence under house arrest.

He said the goalposts appeared to have shifted from Loke’s initial announcement that his resignation was linked to Najib’s pardon to the timing of Najib’s house arrest.

Loke said he would resign as transport minister over the conditional pardon, which allows the former prime minister serve the remainder of his jail term at home, subject to a RM50 million payment and other conditions.

He later said his resignation would take effect when Najib begins house arrest, while other DAP leaders in the unity government would remain in their positions in the interests of political stability.

Ramasamy also challenged Loke’s assertion that DAP still commands about 80% of Chinese voters’ support, saying it would be “a considerable achievement” if the party secured even 40% at the 16th general election.

He said Loke should stop assuming that the Chinese community would be politically abandoned without DAP.

“The Chinese community is not politically helpless,” he said, adding that it had produced generations of voters, professionals, entrepreneurs, intellectuals and community leaders capable of making their own political choices.

“DAP does not have a monopoly over Chinese aspirations. Indeed, the greater danger is for DAP to assume that Chinese voters have nowhere else to go.”

Loke’s 80% figure was based on recent state election results, although he acknowledged that securing 90% would be difficult. He also said the party needed to rebuild support beyond its traditional base ahead of GE16.

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