KUALA LUMPUR, Thurs: April 24, 2008 By B. Suresh Ram
Barisan Nasional deputy chairman Datuk Seri Najib Razak has described the resignation of Gerakan’s Datuk Lee Kah Choon from the party as “unfortunate”.
“It is unfortunate that he has chosen to accept the positions,” he said today, referring to Lee’s appointment as director of the Penang Development Corporation and investPenang from the Pakatan Rakyat state government.
Lee was given a show cause letter by Gerakan on Tuesday.
The next day, the former Health Ministry parliamentary secretary and Gerakan deputy secretary-general, who had quit all party positions two weeks ago, announced that he was leaving the party.
Najib, the deputy prime minister, said Lee’s acceptance of the state government’s offer of the two positions made his membership of a BN component party untenable.
“That is a clearly stated policy of the BN,” Najib told reporters at the last day of the Defence Services Asia exhibition and conference here.
Gerakan advisor Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik yesterday called Lee an opportunist and lacking in principle.
“Don’t say he is out of politics because he is now very much a part of the DAP agenda,” he said, adding that Lee’s departure from Gerakan was no loss to the party and country.
Dr Lim told reporters after opening a forum on the mid-term review of the Ninth Malaysia Plan here that the DAP’s poaching had nothing to do with being democratic.
“Run the state of Penang but there is no need to poach our people and he (Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng) called this the new era of politics. I doubt if Karpal Singh or his father (Lim Kit Siang) encouraged this,” said Dr Lim.
On the claim by Parti Keadilan Rakyat de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim on Wednesday that Pakatan Rakyat would be able to form the federal government by September, Najib said Anwar could claim whatever he wanted.
“It is part of the political gamesmanship that he is playing,” he said.
Najib said he was confident the Sabah and Sarawak BN components would continue to support and remain with the coalition.
“We don’t expect them to walk out of the coalition. They will be loyal to the BN,” he said. "They must have confidence that the future of the country would be more assured under the BN."
On a suggestion by Umno supreme council member Datuk Seri Rais Yatim for the party to form a commission to study why it had lost support, Najib said there was no need for such a body.
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