Ramasamy reminds Warisan of ties after latter accepts ex-DAP reps

Ramasamy reminds Warisan of ties after latter accepts ex-DAP reps


DAP's P Ramasamy has issued a gentle reminder to Warisan president Mohd Shafie Apdal about maintaining friendly ties between his party and Pakatan Harapan after a number of former DAP representatives decamped as part of Warisan's expansion to the peninsular.

"It would be more meaningful for Warisan to form a pact with Harapan rather than going it alone in the politics of the peninsular.

"I am glad that Warisan under the leadership of Shafie has taken the initiative to spread its wings in the peninsular as the old days of internal colonialism are over.

"Having said this, the party must be careful in distinguishing its friends and foes," said Ramasamy in a statement today.

He added that recruiting disgruntled former leaders of DAP or PKR might not benefit the long term relationship of Warisan and Harapan component parties.

"Warisan must understand that without the support of Harapan, the constitutional amendments restoring the traditional rights of Sabah and Sarawak might not have materialised in the first place.

"It was Umno/BN that has been the real cause of the misery of the people of Sabah and Sarawak," he added.

He said that the fact that Warisan is making an appearance in the peninsular should impress upon Malaysians that political parties and politicians from Borneo Island should be taken seriously.

"Harapan is looking forward to having an electoral pact with Warisan in the coming general elections.

"While Harapan is looking at Warisan as a friend, there is no need for the party and its leaders to disturb the traditional support bases of DAP, PKR and Amanah, said Ramasamy, who is also Penang deputy chief minister II.

"Harapan is not the enemy of Warisan. The real enemies are all dressed up in sheepskin," he added.

P Ramasamy


Don't weaken bases of potential fraternal parties

Warisan now has an elected representative in Selangor after three ex-DAP representatives from the peninsular joined the Sabah-based party.

Teratai state assemblyperson Bryan Lai Wai Chong, who quit DAP amid extramarital affair allegations last year, has joined Warisan alongside former Jelutong MP Jeff Ooi Chuan Aun, and former Penang state executive council member Danny Law Heng Kiang.

Umno's former Kukup assemblyperson Suhaimi Salleh and former MIC committee member S Sundhar also reportedly joined Warisan.

Warisan officially expanded into Peninsular Malaysia in December, and youth-based party Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda) is its partner for the 15th general election.

Ramasamy called on Warisan leaders to adopt broad thinking on the political process in the country.

"Long term goals of restoring democracy and justice cannot be forsaken for short term goals of trying to weaken the bases of potentially fraternal political parties such as DAP and PKR.

"All the bad publicity of Warisan on the drive to recruit former and current DAP and PKR members is not in the long term interests of the party and just as Shafie wants peninsular politicians to be sensitive to the people in Sabah and Sarawak, he must do the same here," he added.

*********

kt comments:

We know that Warisan is a stalking horse for "someone" so it will consider DAP as an enemy.

But Dr Ramasamy also must consider that the DAP cannot merely marginalise former representatives like Danny Law and Jeff Ooi and expect them to do just background jobs for the party or to hand out pre-election campaign leaflets.

Take Danny Law for example - he was a high-performing and very popular ADUN for Batu Lanchang yet abandoned in the 2018 GE when DAP was at its most popular, all most probably because of the inner coterie's selected parachutists. Why should he continue to hang around DAP which no longer wants him?

Warisan will be ominous for DAP, but DAP hasn't done any favour for itself by agonising its abandoned members.