PUTRAJAYA, Aug 31 — DAP national chairman Gobind Singh Deo today declined to comment on former Bangi MP Ong Kian Ming’s resignation from the party, saying National Day was not the time for politics.

According to the New Straits Times, Gobind said he had yet to read Ong’s statement and deferred any response to another time.

“No, not today. No politics today. I haven’t read anything he said, so let’s leave it for another time,” the digital minister said when approached by the national daily during the National Day celebrations here.

Ong announced earlier today that he was resigning from DAP with immediate effect after 14 years in the party.

The former Bangi and Serdang MP said he intended to continue contributing to public life alongside like-minded individuals and would assist former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin in his campaign for the 16th general election.

Ong also said he did not plan to join another political party or contest in GE16.

He joined DAP in 2012 and served as Serdang MP from 2013 to 2018 before representing Bangi from 2018 to 2022. He was also deputy international trade and industry minister from 2018 to 2020, and previously served on the party’s central executive committee and Selangor state committee.

His departure comes two weeks after DAP delegates overwhelmingly backed keeping the party’s ministers and deputy ministers in the federal government until the end of the current parliamentary term.

Ahead of that vote, Ong had publicly discussed the arguments for both remaining in government and withdrawing from Cabinet as a means of pressing Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for faster reforms.