The Democratic Action Party (DAP) has always been sincere in working with UMNO, but its sincerity has not always been appreciated.
DAP Secretary-General Anthony Loke criticised the actions of certain UMNO leaders who, he said, were reluctant to acknowledge their cooperation with DAP in forming the government.
He said that as part of the collaboration, DAP was even willing to give up the Dusun Tua state seat in Selangor, previously won by the party, to UMNO.
“That itself shows our sincerity (DAP). However, sometimes our sincerity is not reciprocated. There are even those who say they have never cooperated with DAP.”
“I really don’t understand this. Such statements do not make sense. We have already cooperated in elections to the extent that we handed over a seat to UMNO,” Anthony said during the DAP General Assembly in Klang this morning (18 January).
Anthony noted that DAP has been transparent with its supporters about its cooperation with UMNO under the Pakatan Harapan (PH)–Barisan Nasional (BN) framework. He added that the party had actively campaigned for UMNO during the election and stressed that leaders should not mislead themselves or voters.
Meanwhile, Anthony said that DAP will continue to contest seats currently held by the party in the next election, according to Berita Harian.
“We do not prevent other parties from contesting, and we hope other parties will also not prevent DAP from contesting,” he added.
“If we cooperate as a coalition, seat allocations must be based on the principle of incumbency (the current seat holder). We have already made sacrifices in the last state election.”
In a separate post by DAP Selangor today, the party reiterated that it will not give up any seats in the next General Election.
What do you think of Anthony’s stance on this matter?
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