KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 11 — DAP had high hopes for its former leader P Ramasamy but he repeatedly disappointed the party, said DAP secretary-general Liew Chin Tong in expressing regret and sadness over the former’s resignation.
Liew, who is Johor DAP chief and party strategist, said that the party tolerated his attitude and antics even though he never had grassroots support as he continued to hold high positions in the state government and the party due to the party’s “inclusivity”.
“DAP leadership believed Ramasamy still had something to contribute despite his attitude. His antics were tolerated, and he continued to hold high positions in the state government and the party,” he said.
Liew recalled Ramasamy’s entry to the party in 2005 after his post-retirement contract for Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia was terminated, while his rise to significance in the party started three years later when he contested against outgoing Chief Minister Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon for the Batu Kawan federal seat, as well as the Perai state seat in Penang.
Former DAP leader Karpal Singh insisted on Ramasamy being fielded as a state candidate for Perai, to ensure he would have a decent chance of being elected even if he didn’t win Batu Kawan although the intervention caused unhappiness among potential candidates who had prepared for Perai.
“When the political tsunami took place on 8 March 2008, the new chief minister Lim Guan Eng broke with convention by appointing Ramasamy as the second deputy chief minister. The idea was to give him prominence that he would assist the party in being more inclusive,” he said, adding that DAP thought that more needed to be done to promote the party’s multiracial policy.
However, Liew said that Ramasamy was never popular among the party’s grassroots and lost in all DAP’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) elections in 2012, 2013, 2017 and 2022.
“Yet DAP continued to have faith in him to bring about positive changes.
“Alas, it was a false hope. It was Karpal who mentored Ramasamy in 2008 but when he didn’t get what he wanted, in 2011, Ramasamy used the harshest words against Karpal in a public feud which rarely happened in DAP,” he said.
Chin said it was disappointing that Ramasamy ended up quitting with harsh and baseless allegations against the party and its secretary-general Anthony Loke, just days before the most consequential state elections in Malaysia, in the hope to cause dissatisfaction among DAP supporters.
Yesterday, the former Perai assemblymen submitted his resignation as Taman Chai Leng chairman and as state deputy chairman to the party secretary-general Anthony Loke and to Penang DAP chairman Chow Kon Yeow.
Ramasamy also accused DAP national leaders of endorsing the “purge”, blaming an unnamed “maharaja” — Malay for “emperor” — as the source of the crises in Penang DAP. He also alleged that the DAP national leadership is beholden to this “maharaja”.
