GEORGE TOWN: There is no internal plot within the DAP to unseat Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow, says a group of party backbenchers.
In a joint statement yesterday, the 10 reps said they were not among the purported three assemblymen involved in a plot to oust Chow and replace him with former chief minister Lim Guan Eng.
They also described the claim published in Malaysiakini yesterday as malicious and unfair as it had not mentioned who the three assemblymen were, thereby putting all of them under public suspicion.
The 10 assemblymen issued their joint statement a few hours after the article was published.
They were Guan Eng, Lim Siew Khim, Jason H’ng, Heng Lee Lee, Joseph Ng, Ong Ah Teong, Daniel Gooi, Satees Muniandy, Syerleena Abdul Rashid, and Chris Lee.
The assemblymen who held no government positions also noted they had not spoken to the portal for the article.
“To attribute the report to any of three assemblymen (from DAP) is untrue and false. Thus, we are unable to ascertain where the portal got its baseless information from,” they wrote.
They also said they would not be drawn into any attempts to divide and distract them from their objective of serving the people and ensuring Penang’s future.
The assemblymen also voiced their commitment to winning in the coming state election and strengthening political stability, as well as fortifying the unity government in Putrajaya.
Yesterday, Chow and DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke told reporters they were also unaware of any such move.
“This is news to me ... I don’t know who they are ... no one has expressed their unhappiness to me,” Chow said in reference to the assemblymen mentioned in the article.
Loke, who was attending an event in Putrajaya, said: “Maybe it is just rumours. I have never received any memorandum or any letter from any assemblyman.”
In November 2018, Penang’s constitution was amended to limit a chief minister’s tenure to two terms.
The amendment expressly stipulates that the Yang di-Pertua Negeri must appoint a chief minister “who has never at any time held the chief minister’s post for two terms”.
Guan Eng was chief minister from 2008 to 2013, and again from 2013 to 2018.
Meanwhile, Malaysiakini has since retracted its article, saying it discovered “certain errors in the report based on the meeting with the three assemblymen.”
