JELEBU, Aug 10 — The decision of former Penang Deputy Chief Minister II Dr P. Ramasamy to quit DAP will not affect the campaign of Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the state elections this time.
DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke said he had expected Ramasamy’s action following the latter’s omission as a candidate in the Penang polls, besides being upset with the decision taken (to leave him out).
“We are disappointed when a leader who had been given so many opportunities by the party, for three terms as a Deputy Chief Minister, acts like this when not given a seat (in the coming election).
“But the party’s struggles will continue. Individuals, (and) leaders come and go, the most important is that the party remains strong. No individual is bigger than the party,” he said when met after the ‘Santai Minum Pagi Bersama Masyarakat’ (Breakfast with the Community) programme in Kampung Chennah here today.
The Transport Minister said Ramasamy should not have quit the party although he was not nominated as a candidate for the state polls because other leaders who were not nominated chose to stay with the party and help in the party’s campaign to ensure victory for the parties in the Unity Government.
“To me, when someone (quits the party when he) no longer gets a post in the party, it means his presence in the party was not sincere. Does it mean they were only interested in the party for the posts? No post and they immediately quit the party,” he said.
Earlier, Ramasamy announced his resignation from all positions in DAP and his exit from the party, adding that he had sent his resignation letter to Loke and Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow this morning.
Ramasamy, the incumbent Perai assemblyman, was dropped as a PH candidate for the Penang election and replaced by Datuk Seri S.Sundarajoo for the Perai seat, which will see a four-cornered fight in the state polls on Saturday (Aug 12).
Meanwhile, Loke said the optimism voiced by Perikatan Nasional (PN) leaders that they can win five out of the six states in Saturday’s state polls was just a psychological war to motivate the members.
Citing the situation in Negeri Sembilan, Loke said PN does not have strong grassroots support compared to Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Harapan (PH) which have their own strengths that can boost the confidence of the two parties to gain support from the people and win.
“Negeri Sembilan, (I) don’t mean to be arrogant but BN and PH have grassroots strength. This is shown in the trend of the voting pattern. Not that we want to put down the opposition but PAS and Bersatu have no grassroots strength here,” he said.
PN secretary-general Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin was reported to have said that PN is confident of winning five out of the six states in the polls this time, although he did admit to describing Penang as being quite difficult (to win).
Loke, who is the PH candidate for the Chennah constituency, is confident that PH-BN can repel the PN wave and achieve the target of winning 36 state seats based on the two parties’ good results in the 15th general election (GE15).
He said that in GE15, BN dominated the five Parliamentary seats while PH won three seats and the results clearly showed that the voting pattern favoured these two parties.
“We hope to achieve our target of 36 seats although there are several hot seats. But I am confident that when the votes for PH-BN are tallied they will indeed be more. The wave that was talked about in GE15 never reached Negeri Sembilan, there is no PN wave here,” he said.
The Election Commission (EC) has set Saturday (Aug 12) as the polling date for the state elections in Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Penang, Kedah, Terengganu and Kelantan and the Kuala Terengganu by-election.
