DAP, Amanah terminates membership of 'defector' state reps from Malacca, Perak

DAP has decided to sack three of their elected representatives for defecting to Perikatan Nasional (PN), while Amanah kicks out one.

The DAP disciplinary committee chief Chong Chieng Jen said Pengkalan Batu assemblyperson Norhizam Hassan Baktee, Tronoh assemblyperson Paul Yong Choo Keong and Buntong assemblyperson A Sivasubramaniam have had their DAP membership terminated.

“The DAP disciplinary committee has today terminated the membership of Norhizam for crossing over from DAP to PN.

“In respect of the two Perak assemblypersons who have defected, namely Yong and Sivasubramaniam, given that they have publicly announced that they have quit the party, the disciplinary committee has also decided to terminate their membership,” Chong said in a statement today.

He also advised all other DAP members to disassociate from the three “defectors” and warned members against accepting any official positions offered by the PN government.

Anyone who defects will have the sternest action taken against them, he said, because “nothing is more treacherous and worse than a betrayal of the people’s mandate,” he said.

The Malacca Pakatan Harapan government collapsed two weeks ago when Norhizam (above) along with three others including Bersatu assemblyperson Mohd Rafiq Naizamohideen withdrew from the coalition.

The four of them defected to PN, giving the new coalition enough numbers to form a simple majority state government in Malacca.

The 12th Malacca chief minister - Umno’s Lendu rep Sulaiman Ali - was sworn-in on Monday.

Meanwhile, Yong and Sivasubramaniam were part of a second wave of defections in the Perak state government yesterday.

They, along with Amanah’s Titi Serong assemblyperson Hasnul Zulkarnain Abd Munaim, had announced they were leaving Harapan shortly after PN declared it would form a new state government in Perak.

This comes after Bersatu in Perak also switched over to PN from Harapan, bringing with them four assemblypersons.

However, a day after the fall of the Harapan government in Perak, Chenderiang assemblyperson Ahmad Faizal Azumu resigned as menteri besar.

He said his resignation was due to Perak Bersatu’s move to leave Harapan and the present majority in the state assembly is now held by the new PN pact.

Despite that, he added that Bersatu had also re-nominated him as the next menteri besar.

With this, the current alignment in Perak will see PN with 32 seats on the government bench while the opposition bench will have 24 members.

In a separate statement today, Amanah Youth deputy chief Shazni Munir Mohd Ithnin (above) said their council meeting yesterday had also decided to terminate Hasnul’s party membership as well.

“As such, he is no longer the Amanah Youth chief.

“Amanah Youth stresses that their entire leadership council remains resolute within the Amanah Youth organisation and there will not be a single one of us who will follow in his (Hasnul’s) footsteps,” Shazni said, adding that many of their leaders have publicly criticised and condemned Hasnul’s actions.

He also said Amanah Youth will set a date as soon as possible to elect a new chief.