KUALA LUMPUR — DAP deputy secretary-general Liew Chin Tong said P. Ramasamy had long been rejected by the party’s grassroots prior to the latter’s decision to quit the party.
In a Facebook post, today, describing Ramasamy’s history with the party since joining in 2005, Liew said the rejection was evident as Ramasamy had lost all DAP’s central executive committee elections in 2012, 2013, 2017, and 2022, as well as the Penang DAP’s state committee elections in 2010, 2013, 2015 and 2018 respectively.
Expressing his disappointment and regret over Ramasamy’s accusations against the party and secretary-general Anthony Loke, Liew said DAP had prior to the former deputy chief minister’s resignation believed that he had still something to contribute despite his attitude.
“His antics were tolerated, and he (had) continued to hold high positions in the state government and the party.”
In 2008, Liew recalled that Ramasamy was given the chance to contest in at the Batu Kawan parliament seat which was deemed a tough seat to win as he was to face the then-outgoing Penang chief minister Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon.
“Knowing the risk, the then DAP chairman, the late Datuk Seri Karpal Singh insisted on Ramasamy being fielded as a state candidate for Perai, to ensure he would have a decent chance of being elected even if he didn’t win Batu Kawan.
“The intervention caused unhappiness among potential candidates who had prepared for Perai.
“When the political tsunami took place on March 8, 2008, the new Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng broke convention by appointing Ramasamy as the second deputy Chief Minister.
“The idea was to give him prominence that he would assist the party in being more inclusive. While DAP has always been a multiracial party, more needed to be done,” he said.
Liew said DAP’s faith in Ramasamy to bring about positive changes ended up being a “false hope”.
“It was Karpal who mentored Ramasamy in 2008 but when he didn’t get what he wanted, in 2011, Ramasamy used the harshest words against Karpal in a public feud which rarely happened in DAP,” he said.
“It is also regrettable that Ramasamy quit the party just days before the most consequential state elections in Malaysia, in the hope to cause dissatisfaction among DAP supporters,” he added.
Yesterday, Perai incumbent Ramasamy announced quitting DAP, just weeks after he was dropped as a candidate for the Penang state election.
Today, Loke said that Ramasamy’s action showed that his presence at the party was not sincere, which was followed by a quick response from Ramasamy, threatening to sue Loke for his flurry of contentious claims. – August 11, 2023.