Just get out of govt, DAP leader tells Muda

The war of words between DAP leaders and Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman went up a notch today with a party leader telling the Muda president to go ahead with his threat to pull out from the government bench.

DAP central committee member and Ipoh Timur MP Howard Lee Chuan How challenged Syed Saddiq to make good on the threat so that he could be seated on the opposite bench in the Dewan Rakyat.

"I am confident that with Muda's withdrawal of support and its removal from the unity government, it will be easier for us to focus. 

"Our task in building the nation and attending to the people's welfare will be easier because we won't need to deal with 'childish' acts of certain individuals and parties," Lee said.

This followed Syed Saddiq's stand against the attorney-general's decision to discontinue the 47 corruption charges against Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, as well as his strong criticism of an absence of clear condemnation from DAP leaders over the move.

But it was Syed Saddiq's recent statement supporting former Umno man Khairy Jamaluddin's description of DAP as Zahid's "lapdog" that appeared to hit a raw nerve among DAP leaders, with Bangi MP Syahredzan Johan saying the label was hurtful to him as a Malay.

"It is deeply offensive to me. Not because I regard dogs as despicable," Syahredzan, who is among a handful of Malay MPs from DAP, said on Twitter.

Lee meanwhile described Syed Saddiq as "foul-mouthed" for calling the party a "lapdog" as well as accusing it of being hypocritical and unprincipled in the Zahid episode.

He went on to remind Syed Saddiq that DAP had helped him by providing legal services when he was slapped with criminal breach of trust and money laundering charges in 2021.

"The abuses and insults amount to burning all the existing bridges. Syed Saddiq and the Muda party are like sheep in wolves' clothing and parasites in the unity government," said Lee.

On Monday, Zahid, the Umno president who was instrumental in getting the numbers needed for Anwar Ibrahim's appointment as prime minister last year, was granted a discharge not amounting to acquittal (DNAA), triggering public outrage.

The DNAA was given at the request of Idrus Harun just a day before he retired, despite the court ruling there was a prima facie case in the charges and Zahid being told to enter his defence.