PUTRAJAYA: DAP leaders will remain in the Federal Government for the rest of the parliamentary term, after 88.2% of delegates at the party’s national congress voted in favour of staying.
The secret ballot saw 1,857 delegates vote for the party to remain in government, while 242, or 11.5%, voted to leave.
Its secretary-general Anthony Loke said the result gave the party’s central executive committee (CEC) and its representatives in government a clear mandate to continue serving and push ahead with reforms promised under the Pakatan Harapan manifesto.
The party has five ministers in the Cabinet, while seven serve as deputy ministers.
“The agenda to limit the Prime Minister to two terms and the agenda to fight corruption are agreed together. They are not DAP’s alone,” he said after the party’s special congress.
Loke rejected suggestions that the vote was intended to pressure Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim with a DAP agenda, saying the reforms were commitments collectively agreed upon by Pakatan.
“Most delegates voted to stay, but some wanted the party to be decisive and assertive,” he said.
Loke said delegates were free to vote as they wished, but the party would abide by the majority, calling those unhappy with the result to accept the majority decision.
He said the party would also continue raising cost-of-living concerns highlighted by the grassroots, including calls to review RON95 and diesel quotas for Sabah and Sarawak.
He said specifics would be worked out with the Prime Minister and the Cabinet.
Announcing the results, DAP congress chairman Cha Kee Chin said 2,223 delegates attended the congress, representing a 52.1% attendance rate.
A total of 2,106 ballot papers were issued and all were accounted for, with 2,099 valid votes and seven spoiled ballots.
“The majority, through the secret ballot, has spoken.
“A total of 1,857 delegates voted for our leaders to remain in the Federal Government,” he said.
The result followed a debate in which all 14 delegates who spoke called for DAP to remain in government, but demanded closer scrutiny of promised reforms following the party’s setbacks in the recent Sabah, Johor and Negri Sembilan elections.
Kedah delegate Lim Hooi Yee said leaving would cost the party its seat at the decision-making table, while Perak delegate Jason Ng Thien Yeong questioned why the party should “run away” after fighting for decades to enter government.
Kuala Lumpur delegate Sangeet Kaur Deo took a sharper line by urging the CEC to “seriously reassess” its relationship with Anwar.
“Instead of bringing the coalition partners together, what has he done? He has divided us, pitted one against another and empowered Umno,” she claimed.
However, she stopped short of advocating an exit, saying: “The bottom line is, we stay, but for a different reason.”
Sarawak delegate Soo Tien Ren said leaving now would amount to “political suicide”, but remaining without concrete reform targets could be equally damaging.
Selangor delegate Shakir Ameer told the congress that it had to face its shriking non-Malay voter base and shift its message towards policy and development.
Earlier, Loke had put the decision directly to delegates, saying a matter of such importance should not be decided solely by the 40-member CEC.
Meanwhile, DAP national chairman Gobind Singh Deo, said the party needed to assess its achievements and shortcomings after three-and-a-half years in government, with the remaining 18 months used to pursue institutional and economic reforms.
