Umno rep to be appointed as Penang exco, says Loke

DAP has agreed to appoint an Umno assemblyman to represent Barisan Nasional (BN) as a member of the Penang state executive council in the spirit of the coalition government, says party secretary-general Anthony Loke.

Loke, who is also the transport minister, said the matter was unanimously agreed on at the DAP central executive committee (CEC) meeting last night.

"DAP is leading Penang with the chief minister. The CEC agreed that we propose to the chief minister the appointment of an exco member from Umno to represent BN.

"As there are two BN candidates who won in Penang, we will appoint a BN representative to sit in the Penang state government executive council," he said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur.

Also present were DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng, Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow, DAP deputy chairman Gobind Singh Deo, DAP national publicity secretary Teo Nie Ching and the party's top leadership.

Chow, who is also the Penang Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman, was sworn in as chief minister for a second term on Aug 13, after the PH-BN coalition won 29 of the 40 Penang legislative assembly seats at the state election.

Of that number, DAP won all 19 seats it contested while PKR won seven, BN two, and Amanah one. 

The two seats won by BN were Bertam, represented by Reezal Merican Naina Merican, and Sungai Acheh, represented by Rashidi Zinol.

Loke said the party would also submit the names of the candidates representing DAP to the menteris besar and chief minister to be appointed as state councillors in the three states led by the BN-PH coalition – Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Penang.

On a post-mortem for the elections among the parties in the coalitoin government, Loke said this had not yet been done.

He added that it would involve not only the seats lost, but also those won by the BN-PH coalition.

"What is clear is that the seats we won showed good cooperation between PH and BN. This was very clear in Negeri Sembilan where we won 31 out of 36 seats due to the cooperation between the two coalitions, even though it is a new cooperation. It is a formula for success in the general election," he said.

For DAP, Loke said the Sungai Pelek seat in Selangor, which was won at this state election, was DAP's "seat of pride", considering that almost 60% of the voters were Malays with about 20% Chinese voters and 15% Indian voters.

"We fielded a Chinese grassroots leader as a candidate who managed to defeat the Perikatan Nasional candidate from Bersatu. This is a very significant example of success and it shows that voters in Selangor, including the Malays, can accept the PH candidate," he said.

In the newly concluded state elections, DAP won 46 of the 47 state seats contested in four states, namely 19 seats in Penang, 15 in Selangor, 11 in Negeri Sembilan and one in Kedah.