Berapit DAP rep to stay out of race

BUKIT MERTAJAM: DAP’s Bera­pit assemblyman Lydia Ong Kok Fooi has decided to call it a day and will not be contesting in the coming general election.

A strong critic of her party-led state government, she said she made the decision to quit politics in 2010, two years after she was elected in the 2008 general election, but decided to stay on to serve her constituents.

“It was my late father Datuk Ong Chow Song, the former Kedah Gerakan chairman, who encouraged me to stay on as he saw that there were many unresolved issues, so I decided to stay for another term.

Lydia Ong Kok Fooi 

“Ten years is more than enough. I also find that politicians nowadays spend too much time criticising and pointing at the mistakes of others instead of helping people. I also find them to be narrow-minded,” she said in an interview on Wednesday.

Ong, who is from Sungai Petani in Kedah, said despite being given a position in the party, she always felt that her voice was not heard.

“I was so committed to helping my constituents that I even rented a house in Taman Quarry, Bukit Mertajam, where I stayed without returning home for nine months,” she added.

Ong said she puts her constituents ahead of the party, and works to deliver results.

Asked what she will do next, Ong said she has no plans but will return to Sungai Petani as her son is graduating from a university in Taiwan in June while her daughter is still in secondary school.

Meanwhile, Penang DAP chairman Chow Kon Yeow declined to comment, saying that all party members should wait for an official announcement.

At least three DAP assemblymen could be dropped from the state line-up, including Tanjung Bungah assemblyman Teh Yee Cheu, who has fallen out of favour with secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.