KUCHING, Nov 22: Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak has announced its rejection of ‘political frogs’ of all types.
Its chairman Chong Chieng Jen said the party will not accept any ‘political frogs’, a term commonly used to refer to politicians who jump from one political party to another.
He added DAP Sarawak is only willing to cooperate with genuine politicians.
“For DAP, we have already made it very clear from the beginning that we reject all frogs be it intelligent or unintelligent frogs, Umno (United Malays National Organisation) frogs or non-Umno frogs.
“So in the Melaka (state) election, DAP made that very clear from the beginning.
“But as far as DAP is concerned, for our area (Sarawak), we have a frog who was an incumbent.
“We insisted that he should not be re-nominated and that’s how we uphold our party’s decision,” he said during a press conference at DAP headquarters here today.
Chong was responding to a question from a reporter who asked whether the defeat of the Opposition in the Melaka state election was due to Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who accepted defected politicians and put them to contest in the state election.
In the Melaka state election, the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition secured only five out of the 28 seats available for contest.
The Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition won the Melaka state election by winning 21 seats out of the 28 seats contested last Saturday.
In the meantime, Chong who is Stampin MP pointed out that all the DAP MPs were loyal to the party and none of its 42 MPs have defected to join other political parties.
Likewise, Batu Lintang incumbent See Chee How and Ba’kelalan incumbent Baru Bian who were formerly PKR members have defected to join Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) in May 2020.
On another note, Chong disclosed that the party has yet to decide on whether to cooperate with PSB in the upcoming 12th Sarawak Election.
He said DAP Sarawak is still assessing the possibility of the cooperation through further discussion and negotiations before making a final decision.
Chong added DAP Sarawak will also assess whether PSB will continue to be in the Opposition after the 12th State Election or otherwise.
On seat allocations to be contested among Pakatan Harapan (PH) component parties, Chong who is also PH Sarawak chairman disclosed that an agreement has been reached among party leaders during a meeting on January 2, 2021.
Chong’s special assistant Michael Kong and DAP Sarawak secretary Alan Ling were present at the press conference. — DayakDaily
