Quit PN if there's any dignity left, DAP MP tells Gerakan

Malaysiakini : STATE POLLS | Seputeh MP Teresa Kok has urged Gerakan to leave Perikatan Nasional (PN) if the party had any "shred of dignity" left.

This comes after the fiasco involving PAS' snub of Gerakan president Dominic Lau at an event in Penang, recently. "In my many years in politics, I thought I had seen it all until I witnessed in utter disbelief the cold shoulder and overt snub of Lau by Penang PAS secretary Iszuree Ibrahim.

"Two days later, as both Gerakan and PAS scrambled for damage control, Lau sheepishly doubled back after earlier denying being snubbed by PAS.   “Now, Lau says he has accepted the Islamist party's apology and asked everyone to move on," the DAP leader said in a statement today.

Teresa (above, left) noted that the apology over the snub did not come from Iszuree himself but from PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan.

Penang PAS secretary Iszuree Ibrahim

Iszuree had refused to talk about the matter, merely saying "no comment" when contacted by Malaysiakini.

'Are you waiting for a hat-trick?'   

Teresa said she had never seen a party president being humiliated and belittled in such a manner. "It should never have happened in the first place if they (PN) had a genuine coalition consensus."

Noting Tanjong Gerakan division chairperson H'ng Khoon Leng's remark that this is the second time PAS had apologised to Gerakan over a similar incident, Kok asked whether Lau was waiting for a "hat-trick" to happen before pulling out of the coalition.

"Voters expect a courageous and principled leader who is not an apologist, especially to an extremist party like PAS. "Lau, an insult of this nature on you is an insult to all Gerakan members, and a half-baked apology is as good as a non-apology.

“Gerakan should leave the PN coalition if it still has any shred of self-respect and dignity left," Teresa said.