KUALA LUMPUR: Barisan Nasional chairman Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi on Sunday (Jan 18) clarified that there is no Team A or Team B within DAP, stressing that his earlier remarks were not intended to suggest internal divisions within the party.
The Deputy Prime Minister said the clarification came after DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke denied the existence of factions within the party at the Selangor DAP Annual Convention 2026 in Klang earlier, adding that he agreed with the explanation.
Ahmad Zahid said the issues raised earlier did not reflect DAP’s official stance, but were the views of a small number of party members responding to remarks by Umno Youth chief Datuk Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh.
"What I meant in my speech at the closing of the 2025 Umno General Assembly was to point out that there were differing statements from a small segment of DAP leaders on the issue,” he told a media conference after the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) annual general meeting here on Sunday.
On Saturday (Jan 17), Ahmad Zahid was reported as saying in his winding-up speech at the 2025 Umno General Assembly that conflicting statements from DAP’s leadership had come from a so-called ‘Team B’.
The Umno president said the matter had been explained to him by Loke and did not represent the position of DAP’s top leadership, but was merely a minor difference of opinion within the party.
He said his earlier remarks were meant as an explanation and not as confirmation of the existence of any factions within DAP.
"If that statement offended DAP, I withdraw the reference. It was never my intention to suggest that there are two camps within the party,” he said.
He also reminded that differing views within a party should not be taken as its official position, especially when they do not amount to party policy or final decisions.
Earlier, Loke, in his speech officiating the Selangor DAP Annual Convention 2026, denied claims that he had mentioned the existence of a ‘Team B’ within DAP allegedly issuing statements contrary to the party’s leadership. — Bernama
