I have lost all respect for Ramasamy, says Loke amid DAP 'purge' of 'anti-emperor' faction

DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke today slammed P Ramasamy, calling the Penang deputy chief minister a liar just hours after the latter announced his exit from the party.

Loke said Ramasamy had lied in claiming that he was not informed of the decision to drop him from the candidate line-up for the state election.
 
"I feel very sorry about the actions of Ramasamy who is willing to lie in this matter. I have lost all my respect for him as my former lecturer," Loke said, adding that any one who quit the party for not being nominated "is not sincere and loyal to the party's cause". 

"They only ride on the party for posts and positions. When there are no more positions, the party is abandoned."

Ramasamy had said that Loke was not honest enough to admit that the dropping of six DAP incumbents "was a political purge initiated by the emperor", a reference to chairman Lim Guan Eng who has been accused of interfering in the party's choice of candidates for Penang.

He also labelled Loke as a person "who lacks the basic decency and courage in articulating the rights of non-Malays".

"In short, he doesn’t know the meaning of sincerity. Perhaps he has not been educated enough. He lacks the elementary guts to oppose the whims and fancies of the emperor in DAP. He is beholden to him forever," said Ramasamy.

In announcing his resignation from the party today, he said that while he did not mind being dropped due to his age, he could not accept the decision to drop the other incumbents.

He also said that Loke had no "manners or courtesy" to inform him about the decision to drop him, adding that he had done much to mobilise Indian support for DAP.

Ramasamy, a three-term assemblyman, previously said he agreed with the view of Bagan Dalam incumbent Satees Muniandy, who was also dropped from the election line-up, that those who did not make it to the candidate list for the Aug 12 polls were those who supported Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow to remain in the state's top post.

"It is obvious that the selection is based on the nature of politics in Penang DAP. By that, I mean the selection is made due to political alignment," he said on July 26, hours after Satees, during a press conference, lashed out at an "emperor" whose identity he said was obvious to everyone.

"We have democracy in Penang; we do not need emperors in Penang. I am not in the emperor's camp; I got chopped. I am telling the emperor: you are not the emperor forever," Satees had said.