KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin has slammed DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke for denying that DAP has influence over Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and the government, as claimed by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Yesterday, Dr Mahathir said in a statement that “prime minister Anwar Ibrahim is adhering to DAP’s manifesto” because without DAP Anwar would lose power, as the party has influence over the government.
Former premier also claimed that Anwar has to please DAP by following their manifesto and changing the country`s official religion Islam to a secular country, or a country without any official religion.
In response, the DAP secretary-general in a statement criticised Dr Mahathir`s claim and accused him of making “an irresponsible” statement.
Loke also mentioned that DAP has never retracted its support or threatened Dr Mahathir’s position during the latter’s tenure as prime minister under the PH administration, even when the party had 42 seats in Parliament at that time.
But Former PKR vice-president Zuraida reminded him about DAP’s role in pressuring Dr Mahathir to step down as prime minister after the 14th General Election.
“Maybe Anthony Loke has forgotten that DAP is one of the parties that put pressure on Tun Dr Mahathir to give up his position as Prime Minister,” she said.
on 10 May 2019, DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang stated in the Sandakan By-election speech stage that he himself would resign if Tun Dr. Mahathir did not hand over the position of Prime Minister to Anwar Ibrahim immediately, Zuraida added as quoted by Suara TV.
“This is one of the main pieces of evidence that show DAP’s true intentions which are indeed insincere in the administration of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government after the great victory of the party coalition in 2018.
“The statement from the most influential DAP leader at that time caused many parties in the PH coalition to feel uncomfortable and began to dispute DAP’s true intentions,” Zuraida said in a statement, adding that if DAP did not pressure Dr Mahathir at that point, he would not have resigned.
